How will your train journeys be affected by rail strikes this Christmas?
Train drivers from the Aslef union are still striking over the Christmas period - ITV News Political Reporter Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe reports.
Members of Aslef have voted overwhelmingly to continue strike action for the next six months in their ongoing dispute over pay, the train drivers’ union announced.
Commuters will face travel chaos throughout the Christmas period as train drivers plan a series of rolling one-day strikes to cause "greater" disruption to the rail network.
While members of the RMT union have on Thursday voted unanimously to accept a deal to end a long-running dispute over pay and conditions, strikes by members of the Aslef union are going ahead.
As well as the walkouts, drivers will also stage a nine-day ban on overtime.
The Aslef union said the new walkouts will “ratchet up the pressure” on train companies and the government to give train drivers their first pay rise in more than four years.
It had previously planned to have all its members on strike on the same day but by spreading the action, the ramifications for the rail industry will be "greater" the union said.
Here's how your Christmas journeys could be impacted.
Which company is striking on which day?
December 2 - EMR and LNER
December 3 - Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, Great Northern Thameslink, and WMT
December 5 - C2C and Greater Anglia
December 6 - Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, the SWR main line and depot, and the Island Line
December 7 - CrossCountry and GWR
December 8 - Northern and TPT
All Aslef members will refuse to work any overtime from Friday December 1 to Saturday December 9.
Train companies said they will operate as many trains as possible but there will be wide regional variations, with some operators running no services at all on strike days.
Services that are running will start later and finish much earlier than usual – typically running between 7.30am and 6.30pm.
It is likely that services on some lines will be affected on the evening before and morning after each strike between December 2 and 8 because much of the rolling stock will not be in the right depots.
“We are determined to win this dispute and get a significant pay rise for train drivers who have not had an increase since 2019, while the cost of living, in that time, has soared,” Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said.
“The transport secretary, who has gone missing in action during this dispute, says we should put the offer to our members.
“What the minister apparently fails to understand is that, since the Rail Delivery Group’s (RDG) risible offer in April, we have received overwhelming mandates, on enormous turnouts, for more industrial action.
“Every time our members vote – and they have voted overwhelmingly – for strike action in pursuit of a proper pay rise it is a clear rejection of the offer that was made in April.
“The RDG’s offer – a land grab for all our terms and conditions – was made in the full knowledge that it couldn’t – and wouldn’t – be accepted.”
Aslef said it had successfully struck pay deals with 14 companies in the last 12 months, including freight firms, open-access operators, Eurostar, and passenger companies in Scotland and Wales where transport issues are devolved.
“We have been unable to do a deal with the 16 train operating companies (TOCs) in England controlled by the government. This is a dispute in England made at Westminster by the Tory government.
“We gave the TOCs a way out of this dispute which they chose not to accept because the government interfered.
“We suggested a significant across-the-board increase for all drivers, at all the companies involved, to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.
“We will continue to take industrial action until the train companies, and, or the government, sits down and negotiates with us in good faith.”
Aslef has held 14 one-day strikes during the 18-month dispute, causing huge disruption to services across the country.
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