Most commuter trains in south-east England will not run on Tuesday, in the first in a series of rolling 24-hour strikes by drivers that will bring more disruption to Britain’s rail network this week.
Drivers in the Aslef union are on strike at Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Thameslink and South Western Railway on Tuesday, as part of a long-running dispute over pay.
South Western will run a very limited service on a few routes into London Waterloo, with trains ending by early evening. Bar limited airport shuttles and a Cambridge train, no trains at all will run on the other operators’ networks.
An overtime ban that started on Monday across all the operators in England is also expected to bring more short-notice cancellations to services and wider disruption to those relying on rest day working, such as Chiltern and TransPennine Express.
Aslef said some drivers were approaching five years without a pay rise and warned that strikes would continue until there were negotiations towards a deal.
The latest strike action is expected to be the first test of legislation on minimum service levels. The government has urged train operators to deploy new powers to run 40% of their normal timetable.
However, only LNER, which is one of the four state-run operators, has attempted to demand drivers work, before backtracking after Aslef called five additional days of strikes.
Speaking to the Guardian before this week’s industrial action, the Aslef general secretary, Mick Whelan, said: “We don’t actually have the choice to do nothing. I’ve got drivers who in February will have gone five years without a pay deal – half a decade.
“[Strikes] will keep raising the profile of our dispute until somebody comes to the table to resolve it with us. I’d happily go back into talks tomorrow to find a way forward.”
Passengers in the north will take the biggest hit on Wednesday, with 24-hour strikes at Northern Trains and TransPennineExpress on Wednesday, when no trains will run on either service.
Very limited services are expected at LNER and Greater Anglia, but none at C2C, during strikes on Friday. No trains will run across West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway, where drivers are striking on Saturday.
The overtime ban will reduce timetables on Sunday, a scheduled rest day relying on voluntary overtime from drivers at a number of operators. The last strikes occur at Great Western , CrossCountry and Chiltern on Monday, with only GWR planning to run trains.
The dispute is across train operators contracted to the Department for Transport (DfT) in England, but some cross-border services to Scotland and Wales may be affected.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents operators, has advised passengers to check before they travel, while those who have to travel should expect disruption, plan ahead and verify when their first and last train will depart.
A spokesperson for the RDG said: “There are no winners from these strikes that will unfortunately cause disruption for our customers.
“Instead of staging more damaging industrial action, we call on the Aslef leadership to work with us to resolve this dispute and deliver a fair deal which both rewards our people, and makes the changes needed to make services more reliable.”
The DfT said the union’s leadership was refusing to let its members vote on an offer that would result in the average train driver’s salary increasing to £65,000.
