Train drivers at eight rail companies, including LNER which runs services through the North East, are to stage a 24-hour Saturday strike. Members of Aslef at Chiltern, GWR, LNER, London Overground, Northern, Southeastern and West Midlands will walk out on July 30.
Drivers on Greater Anglia will also strike on July 23, and those on Hull Trains will strike on July 16 and 23. It threatens to cause yet more disruption to rail services and follows Wednesday’s announcement by the RMT union of a strike on July 27.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “We don’t want to go on strike – strikes are the result of a failure of negotiation – and this union, since I was elected general secretary in 2011, has only ever been on strike, until this year, for a handful of days. We don’t want to inconvenience passengers, not least because our friends and families use public transport too, and we believe in building trust in the railways in Britain, and we don’t want to lose money by going on strike.
