The RMT has asked its members who work for First Great Western to take strike action over our proposals to introduce a new fleet of super express trains from 2017.

This coincides with the union's planned industrial action on the Tube and other train operators.

These trains are at the centre of our plans to deliver the biggest fleet upgrade on our network in a generation, helping create three million more seats a year and allowing us to bring you faster, more frequent journeys.

Fully-equipped kitchens on every train will mean we will be able to serve quality hot and cold food directly to customers at their seats for the first time on any journey over an hour. And our proposals would also allow us to get you moving more quickly when things do go wrong and services are disrupted.

This is the kind of service should expect from a 21st-century railway. But we can't deliver such improvements if these new, state-of the-art trains are operated in the same way as trains built in the 1970s.

We know some of our colleagues are worried about the impact these changes may have on their jobs, which is why we have made a number of commitments, including more, not fewer, colleagues on board trains, with their existing pay and conditions protected; a safety competent train manager planned on every new train; no compulsory redundancies for station and customer service staff; appropriate development opportunities and help for colleagues to apply for other roles if they don't want to work on the new trains and food and drink served by a member of staff on every journey over an hour on the new trains.

There will, however, be an impact on some of our engineering depots when maintenance work on the new trains transfers to the train provider as part of their contract procured by government. While we can't change that decision, we can make sure the transition for those people affected is as easy as possible – and we will offer a voluntary redundancy scheme.

We have proposed additional commitments to address the concerns of the RMT and our colleagues, while still allowing us to deliver the improved service you, our customers, expect from a 21st-century railway.

We had hoped this would be enough to avoid strike action, but unfortunately, the RMT did not endorse these proposals, so it is likely that strike action will affect our services until early Saturday this week. We will be running as many of our trains as we can, but your journey may be affected. Please check before you travel at FGW.co.uk/strike In the meantime I am determined to continue talking to the RMT to try and find a way to resolve this matter, while making sure we can operate the new trains in a way that delivers the best possible service for our customers.

I'm sorry in advance for any inconvenience this may cause you and thank you for your patience.

Mark Hopwood, Managing director, First Great Western.