Train drivers announce two more strike dates

Train drivers belonging to the Aslef union have announced two further strike dates.

Members at 15 train companies will walk out for 24 hours on Wednesday 1 and Friday 3 February.

The Aslef union said it had rejected the latest pay offer from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), claiming it “is not and could not ever be acceptable”, but added it was “willing to engage in further discussions”.

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), representing train operators, had made an offer of 4 per cent for both 2022 and this year, contingent on modernisation.

The employers described the offer as “a landmark outline proposal that would deliver more reliable services for passengers”.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said: “It’s now clear to our members, and the public, that this was never about reform or modernisation but an attempt to get hundreds of millions of pounds of productivity for a 20 per cent pay cut while taking away any hope of the union having any say in the future.

“It is time the companies – encouraged, perhaps, by the government – sat down with us and got serious.

“That is the way – and the only way – to end this dispute.”

Last week, Mr Whelan told the Transport Select Committee: “We’re further away than when we started.”

He told MPs: “I cannot recommend any one element of it and it may destroy the ability to go back to those talks in future.

“There is not one line in that deal, from the opening comments to the final full stop, that I can recommend because the deal basically says we basically rip up every agreement we have, local and national, forever and a day.”

He said reaching a settlement would require a “clean pay offer” without strings attached.

Nationwide industrial action began on the railways in June last year, for the first time since the 1980s.

The train drivers have walked out on six dates from 30 July 2022 to 5 January 2023.

The main rail union, the RMT, and the white-collar TSSA, are in talks with the RDG that are understood to be making progress.

The following train operators will be affected by the Aslef strike on 1 and 3 February: