Rail passengers face fresh travel disruption this week after unions announced new strikes.
Members of both the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef) and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) unions will walkout across England tomorrow and this weekend.
Aslef’s general secretary Mick Whelan said no negotiations aimed at resolving the row are taking place, while the Department for Transport insisted it has “facilitated a fair and reasonable pay offer”.
The RMT strike action involves 20,000 rail workers at 14 train operators, including station staff, train managers and catering workers. Planned walkouts by train drivers’ union Aslef will further cause disruption for passengers.
Here’s the National Rail’s travel advice:
National Rail has warned passengers to expect “significant disruption” during strike days, which are likely to result in little or no services across large areas of its network.
Train services are also likely to be disrupted and start later on the day immediately after.
Train operators are still assessing how the walkouts will affect their ability to run services on each of the strike days, meaning that passengers could have to wait longer to find out whether specific journeys are affected.
National Rail has recommended that passengers:
Train drivers are staging four days of walkouts on:
An overtime ban on Aslef train drivers – which could lead to last-minute cancellations – will also take place on:
Passengers have also been warned that services will likely be disrupted and start later on the day immediately following strike action.
The combination means the country’s railways will be in disarray for almost all of the week-long half-term school holiday.
The final day of strike action on June 3 coincides with the FA Cup final at Wembley, the Epsom Derby and Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” world tour concert at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef) represents UK train drivers. Workers at 16 train operating companies will be going on strike: