Train drivers working for twelve rail companies across the UK will go on strike on Saturday 26th November, the Aslef union has announced.
The strike is over a pay dispute, and Aslef says that its negotiators have been engaged in talks with the industry but there has, so far, been no offer on pay that matches current inflation rates. Mick Whelan, general secretary, commented: “We regret that passengers will be inconvenienced for another day. We don’t want to be taking this action. Withdrawing our labour is always a last resort for a trade union.”
The twelve rail companies affected are:
- Avanti West Coast
- Chiltern Railways
- CrossCountry
- East Midlands Railway
- Great Western Railway (GWR)
- Greater Anglia
- London North Eastern Railway (LNER)
- London Overground
- Northern Trains
- Southeastern
- Transpennine Express
- West Midlands Trains
The level of disruption will vary by rail company and they will usually be able to confirm their timetables earlier in the week before the strike. However, Greater Anglia has already said that it will have to run a greatly reduced service between Liverpool Street station and a handful of major destinations only.
Some of the train companies have already suspended ticket sales for travel on that day to reduce the chances of people turning up to catch trains that are not running.
A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said: “We regret Aslef’s decision, which will cause real disruption to passengers and hit its members’ pay packets. Instead of staging more counterproductive strike action which increases the very real financial challenge the industry is facing, we ask them to work with us to secure both a pay deal and the changes needed it for it to thrive in the long-term and improve reliability across the network.”
Talks with the other two main rail unions, the RMT and TSSA are still ongoing.
There are, however, a series of smaller strikes still going ahead, with GWR affected on 19th and 21st November and LNER on 27th November.
This article was published on ianVisits
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The post National Rail strike announced for Sat 26th Nov appeared first on ianVisits.
