When are the next train strikes? All dates and services affected | UK News
Britain will once again grind to a halt next week as a fresh set of train strikes go ahead.
Thousands of trains are expected to be cancelled from January 29 to February 6, causing misery for already fed-up commuters.
It is all happening because of a bitter row over pay and working conditions of train drivers belonging to the Aslef union.
The chaos will be exacerbated by a nine-day ban on overtime running from January 29 to February 6.
In some more welcome news, a separate five-day strike called by Aslef aimed specifically at LNER between February 5 and February 9 has been called off.
A spokesperson for LNER said: ‘We welcome news that the threat of extended disruption to our services has been lifted.
‘We encourage Aslef to work with us to find a way to end this long-running dispute which only damages the rail industry.’
So what do we know about the latest round of strikes?
What dates will the strikes take place?
Monday January 29: overtime ban begins.
Tuesday January 30: South Western Railway, Southeastern and GTR (Southern, Gatwick Express, Great Northern and Thameslink).
Wednesday January 31: Northern and TransPennine Express.
Thursday February 1: no strike but overtime ban continues.
Friday February 2: Greater Anglia ans C2C
Saturday February 3: West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway.
Sunday February 4: no strike but overtime ban continues.
Monday February 5: Great Western, CrossCountry and Chiltern.
Tuesday February 6: no strike but overtime ban continues for a final day.
Which train companies will be impacted?
- Avanti West Coast
- C2C
- Chiltern Railways
- CrossCountry
- East Midlands Railway
- Greater Anglia
- GTR (Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern, Thameslink)
- Great Western Railway
- Northern
- Southeastern
- South Western Railway (including the Island Line on the Isle of Wight)
- TransPennine Express
- West Midlands Railway
Which train companies are not impacted?
- Grand Central
- Hull Trains
- LNER
- Lumo
- Merseyrail
- ScotRail
- Transport for London (including the Elizabeth line)
- Transport for Wales
What services will impacted train companies put on?
Great Northern (January 30): Shuttle service calling at London Kings Cross and Cambridge only and limited operating hours.
Thameslink (January 30): Shuttle service calling at St Pancras, Luton Airport Parkway and Luton only.
Southeastern (January 30): No trains.
Southern (January 30): No trains except a nonstop shuttle service between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport between 6.30am and 11pm.
South Western Railway (January 30): Up to four stopping trains per hour between London Waterloo and Woking. Hourly semi-fast trains between Waterloo and Guildford and Basingstoke. Shuttle will run from Basingstoke to Salisbury every 90 minutes. Two trains an hour will run between Waterloo and Feltham via Richmond and Twickenham. No trains on the Isle of Wight.
Northern (January 31): No trains.
C2C (February 2): No trains.
Greater Anglia (February 2): Limited service between London Liverpool Street and Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester; Southend Victoria; Cambridge; and Stansted Airport.
Avanti West Coast (February 3): No trains.
East Midlands Railway (February 3): No trains.
West Midlands Railway (February 3): No trains.
Chiltern (February 5): No trains either on the strike day or on the previous day, Sunday February 4.
CrossCountry (February 5): No trains.
Great Western Railway (February 5): On the actual strike day, a core service will run between London Paddington, Oxford, Bath and Bristol, with a link from Bristol to Cardiff. Limited service on branch lines in Devon and Cornwall. The Night Riviera sleeper service from London to Penzance will not run for a number of nights. The Heathrow Express is also likely to be affected, with a reduced service between 7am and 7pm only. Trains on adjacent days may be impacted.
What do Aslef and the rail firms say?
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘Any industrial action is incredibly damaging, but after 18 months out on strike and after a year with no one in the government or the [train operating] companies talking to us, we are forced to raise the profile of our issues.
‘When we get to February, it’ll be half a decade without a pay rise. What do we do? Do we do nothing?
‘The only thing that is going to get us out of this is a clean deal.’
A spokesperson for the Railway Delivery Group said: ‘There are no winners from these strikes that will unfortunately cause disruption for our customers. We believe rail can have a bright future, but right now taxpayers are contributing an extra £54m a week to keep services running post-Covid.
‘Aslef’s leadership need to recognise the financial challenge facing rail. Drivers have been made an offer which would take base salaries to nearly £65,000 for a four-day week before overtime – that is well above the national average and significantly more than many of our customers that have no option to work from home are paid.
‘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.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
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