Trains to be disrupted as drivers stage 24-hour strike

158
3
Trains to be disrupted as drivers stage 24-hour strike

Rail passengers will be unable to travel today as train drivers at nine operating companies stage a 24 hour strike, halting services in many parts of England, Scotland and Wales.

Thousands of members of the Aslef union are on strike in a dispute over pay and modernisation of the railways.

Most intercity trains between London and the Midlands, northern England and Scotland and south Wales have been stopped due to the strike. Parts of the UK, including the West Midlands, South-West England and Kent, will not have trains running today.

Train operators have warned passengers not to travel on affected routes. People who want to travel should prepare for very busy trains and possible last-minute cancellations, with the effects expected to last into the first half of Sunday.

Drivers will strike at Arriva Rail London, Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, London North Eastern Railway LNER West Midlands Trains and Southeastern.

The strike means no trains will run on Saturday on London Overground, CrossCountry, Southeastern, West Midlands Trains, London Northwestern Railway and Avanti West Coast.

Very limited services will run on the network of Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, LNER and Hull Trains, including the Stansted Express airport service.

The rail industry has appealed to the unions to continue the talks. Steve Montgomery, Chair of the Rail Delivery Group, said that securing a bright future means we have to adapt Aslef's general secretary, Mick Whelan, but firms are told by the government to limit pay well below inflation without passenger numbers having recovered to pre-pandemic levels.

He said that he had been around the country speaking to drivers before the second coordinated national strike by Aslef this summer and that his members were very up for it and understand that we may be here for the long-haul Saturdays action is the first in a week of strikes by four separate transport unions that will severely curtail rail services. Trains will be disrupted for four days starting on Thursday, as 40,000 members of the RMT union at Network Rail and 14 train operators stage two 24 hour strikes on August 18 and 20. Several thousand TSSA members at Network Rail and seven train operators are expected to take action the same day.

There will be a fifth of the usual timetable if there is no signallers, while services are not expected to resume properly until late morning on the following days.

London transport will be disrupted on the day between the national rail strikes on 19 August when RMT members and some Unite members at Transport for London and London Overground will strike. Most tube and London Overground services in the capital won't run. Parts of the city will be left without buses, as 1,600 drivers in West London in the Unite union will go on strike for two days from 19 August.