Train drivers to strike on 15 September
Train drivers at 12 companies will walk out on 15 September in a dispute over pay.
Disruption will affect services on Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, LNER, London Overground, Northern Trains, Southeastern, TransPennine Express, and West Midlands Trains.
The union said the operators had forced the workers’ hand by not offering a pay adjusted to inflation rates, which have now reached 10.1 per cent and are set to increase in the coming months.
“‘We want the companies – which are making big profits, and paying their chief executives enormous salaries and bonuses – to make a proper pay offer to help our members keep up with the increase in the cost of living,” said Aslef’s general secretary Mick Whelan.
Aslef members walked out over salaries also on 13 August.
The announcement comes on the same day operational and support staff announced a 24-hour walkout on 26 September, Morning Wire reported.
Commenting on the decision, a Department for Transport spokesperson said: “For the ninth time this summer, union leaders are choosing self-defeating strike action over constructive talks, not only disrupting the lives of millions who rely on these services but jeopardising the future of the railways and their own members’ livelihoods.
“These reforms deliver the modernisations our rail network urgently needs, are essential to the future of rail, and will happen; strikes will not change this.”
The Rail Delivery Group trade body said the strike would impact millions of customers at the start of the new school year, dragging “thousands of children and young people who depend on the train to get to school and college” into the dispute.
“We want to give our people a pay rise; we know they are facing a squeeze – but the Aslef leadership must recognise that with revenue remaining 20 per cent below pre-Covid levels, the solution lies in long-overdue reforms that will put the industry on a sustainable footing, improve punctuality for passengers and fund the pay rise our people deserve,” the group’s spokesperson added.