Picket lines as GWR and CrossCountry services worst affected by strike today
Passengers are being urged to check before the travel because of industrial action by the Aslef Union
Last updated 8th May 2024
There's picket lines outside stations places like Penzance, Par, Plymouth, Exeter, Gloucester and Bristol's Parkway and Temple Meads today as train drivers with Aslef strike for more pay.
Across the West Country it'll be Great Western Railway and Cross-Country hit hardest - in what's now the country's longest running rail dispute.
A picket line was staged yesterday at Yeovil Junction, when South Western Railway services were worst impacted.
James Davis, from GWR, said: "Effectively we're able to run very very few trains at all and many parts of our network will have no services. Where we are able to run trains clearly those are expected to be a lot busier."
Mr Davis added that some limited services are still running, such as between Exeter and Barnstaple, and staff across the network will be 'doing their best to provide customers with all the information they can'.
GWR trains say they plan to run slightly fewer trains that they potentially could in order to try and have most trains in the correct place at the end of the day - reducing knock-on disruption at the start of tomorrow.
The latest GWR train strike information can be found here
The Aslef Union say drivers haven't had a pay rise since 2019 and members have seen a real terms pay cut whilst 'private operators and rolling stock companies - who own the trains and lease them back - have continued to pay out dividends to their shareholders, extracting profits from the railways'.
There's more about the dispute and reactions from the Rail Delivery Group and Department for Transport here