ondoners are facing further rail disruption after union Aslef announced another overtime ban from August 7 to 12 in their long-running dispute over pay.
The action, if it goes ahead, will mean disruption to rail schedules at the height of the summer holidays.
Under the industrial action, members of Aslef at 15 train companies in England will refuse to work overtime.
The union said the ban will seriously disrupt services as it believes none of the train companies employs enough drivers.
The move will affect Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; Cross Country; East Midlands Railway; Greater Anglia; Great Western Railway; GTR Great Northern Thameslink; Island Line; LNER; Northern Trains; Southeastern; Southern/Gatwick Express; South Western Railway main line; TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains.
It will be the fifth week-long ban on working overtime since May. The latest ban ended on Saturday, with another one due from July 31 to August 5.
Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, said: “We don’t want to take this action – because we don’t want people to be inconvenienced – 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%.”
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union staged two strikes last week and will walk out again on Saturday in a bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions.
However, a proposed Tube strike this week which threatened to bring the capital to a halt have been called off after talks.
More follows.
