UK rail passengers have been warned to “expect disruption” to services this week as train drivers stage industrial action over the next seven days.
Members of the ASLEF union are holding a series of consecutive one-day strikes between Tuesday (30 January) and next Monday (5 February) at 17 UK train operating companies. The union is in dispute with rail companies over pay, jobs and working conditions.
Train drivers are also refusing to work overtime between 29 January and 6 February, which is expected to cause further disruption to rail services.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents UK train operators, said in a statement: “Train companies will operate as many trains as possible throughout the period, but there will be regional variation with strike action affecting parts of the network on specific days.
“In some places there may be no services at all on strike days, and services that are running will start later and finish much earlier than usual – typically running between 7.30am and 6.30pm.”
Here is a full list of planned strikes by ASLEF members over the next week:
30 January: Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Thameslink, South Western Railway and SWR Island Line
31 January: Northern Trains and Transpennine Express
2 February: Greater Anglia, C2C and LNER
3 February: West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway
5 February: Great Western Railway, CrossCountry and Chiltern
An RDG spokesperson 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.
“While we are doing all we can to keep trains running, unfortunately there will be reduced services between Monday 29 January to Tuesday 6 February, so our advice is to check before you travel and follow the latest travel information.”
Elsewhere in Europe, German rail drivers’ union GDL ended its current strike action a few hours earlier than planned at 2am on Monday (29 January) after GDL said it had resumed collective bargaining talks with train operator Deutsche Bahn.
GDL started the nearly week-long strike last Wednesday (24 January) in a long-running dispute with DB over pay, hours and working conditions. The two parties have now agreed to carry out negotiations between 5 February and 3 March when there will be no further strikes.
Claus Weselsky, federal chairman of the GDL, said the resumption of collective bargaining was an “important step at the right time”.
“DB's willingness to negotiate on reducing working hours for shift workers is particularly important,” added Weselsky.
“There is now a willingness to negotiate a collective agreement for the infrastructure. In the event of an agreement, this would be a strong signal for the entire railway system and a boost towards increasing the attractiveness of railway professions.”
Last week, German travel buyer association VDR said the impact of the rail strikes had been “massively damaging” for Germany’s reputation as a business destination.