Train drivers are to stage a fresh strike in their long-running dispute over pay, threatening more travel chaos for passengers.
Members of Aslef will walk out on 1 September and will be subject to an overtime ban on 2 September, the same day as a strike by rail staff.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport workers’ union announced a week ago that 20,000 of its members from 14 train operators would halt work on 26 August and 2 September as part of their own dispute.
Aslef said its strike will force train companies across England to cancel all services, while the ban on overtime would “seriously disrupt” the network.
The union maintains that none of the privatised train-operating companies employs enough drivers to provide a “proper service” without drivers working on their days off.
The companies affected are Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; c2c; CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway; Greater Anglia; GTR Great Northern Thameslink; Great Western Railway; Island Line; LNER; Northern Trains; Southeastern; Southern/Gatwick Express; South Western Railway; TransPennine Express; and West Midlands Trains.
Mick Whelan, Aslef general secretary, said: “We don’t want to take this action but the train companies, and the government which stands behind them, have forced us into this place because they refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years – since 2019 – while prices have soared in that time by more than 12%.
“The government appears happy to let passengers – and businesses – suffer in the mistaken belief that they can bully us into submission. They don’t care about passengers, or Britain’s railway, but they will not break us.
“Train drivers at these companies have not had a pay rise for four years, since 2019, while inflation has rocketed, We haven’t heard a word from the employers – we haven’t had a meeting, a phone call, a text message, or an email – since April 26 and we haven’t had any contact with the government since January 6.
“This shows how the contempt in which the companies, and the government, hold passengers and staff and public transport in Britain.
“They are happy to let this drift on and on, but we are determined to get a fair pay rise for men and women who haven’t had one for four years while inflation has reached double figures. Our members, perfectly reasonably, want to be able to buy now what they could buy back in 2019.”
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It will be the 12th one-day strike by Aslef members since the dispute started over a year ago. It also follows a series of overtime bans by drivers caused disruption on the rail network over the summer, including from Monday 31 July to Saturday 5 August and from Monday 7 to Saturday 12 August.
Whelan warned of further industrial action if the deadlocked row continues, saying Aslef members were pressing the union to go “harder and faster.”
The rail unions are also campaigning against controversial plans to close most railway ticket offices. More than 300,000 people have responded to a consultation on the matter, which ends on 1 September.
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