Rail strikes to affect journeys in Suffolk
Drivers with Aslef are walking out in a row over pay
Members of the Aslef union will be walking out in Suffolk today in a fresh series of strikes.
The industrial action will see a full day of walkouts today (May 7) across some rail networks, including Greater Anglia and Thameslink, while others will see a full day of strike action on Wednesday (May 8) and Thursday (May 9), including Chiltern Railways, LNER and Avanti West Coast.
An overtime ban will further significantly reduce services across the three counties until Saturday (May 11) on non strike days.
The fresh series of strikes is the latest in a series of walkouts in a row over pay from the train drivers union Aslef.
With a dispute lasting 22 months now, no meetings have been held between the two sides for a year, while government ministers have not met Aslef since the start of 2023.
General Secretary of the train drivers union Aslef, Mick Whelan, said: "Quite simply, we are now entering half a decade without a pay rise so it's been a long running dispute for 22 months."
"What we're asking for is we've asked for like every other sector in the economy, people seem to forget that we had a winter and the summer of solidarity where virtually every sector was out on strike, whether it be civil service, education teachers, the private sector nurses and the BMA are still out."
The Rail Delivery Group has written to Aslef suggesting informal talks which would allow more formal negotiations.
An RDG spokesperson said: "We want to see an end to this dispute and in that spirit, we have written to the Aslef leadership to try and find areas of common ground that will allow us to move to formal negotiations."
The dispute started in the summer of 2022, since when train drivers have taken a number of strikes, causing travel chaos for passengers and huge financial hits on sectors such as hospitality.
While walkouts will severely impact journeys today, some rail operators will see the biggest disruption to their week tomorrow, like Chiltern Railways.
Media Relations Manager at Chiltern Railways, Matt Turner, said: "One thing to know is that there won't be any train service at all on Wednesday the 8th of May, which is when the formal strike action is taking place, but across the week the common theme is that trains will finish that little bit earlier than usual during days affected."
Across the Chiltern Railways network, a reduced timetable has been introduced in an effort to provide more certainty to customers on journeys planned.
Mr Turner said: "We will supplement the rush hours with additional services as and when we can, and we've taken the decision to reduce the service in advance because an overtime ban can affect different operators and different ways.
"So what you'll see is some operators and train companies trying to run a full timetable, but then end up having to cancel services on the day at quite short notice which we know can be a real pain for customers, so our approach is to reduce our service slightly in advance to one that ultimately we're quite confident we can deliver."
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “The Transport Secretary and Rail Minister have already facilitated a pay offer that would take train drivers’ average salaries up to £65,000 - almost twice the UK average salary.
“ASLEF are the only union left striking after the Government oversaw deals with all the other unions. Instead of causing passengers disruption, they should put this offer to their members and work with industry to end this dispute.”