January and February train strike dates: Everything you need to know about rail disruption
The dispute between the train drivers’ union, Aslef, and 14 train operators in England is into its third year.
With no settlement in sight to the long and bitter row over pay and working arrangements, the union has announced its first strikes for 2024.
Train drivers belonging to Aslef will stop work region-by-region over the course of a week between Tuesday 30 January and Monday 5 February. Thousands of trains are likely to be cancelled on each day.
The effect will be exacerbated by a nine-day ban on overtime running from 29 January to 6 February, and an additional five-day strike on LNER only from 5 to 9 February.
These are the key questions and answers.
Which rail firms are affected?
Aslef is in dispute with the train operators that are contracted by the government to provide rail services. They are:
Intercity operators:
- Avanti West Coast
- CrossCountry
- East Midlands Railway
- Great Western Railway
- LNER
- TransPennine Express
London commuter operators:
- C2C
- Greater Anglia
- GTR (Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern, Thameslink)
- Southeastern
- South Western Railway (including the Island Line on the Isle of Wight)
Operators focusing on the Midlands and north of England:
- Chiltern Railways
- Northern Trains
- West Midlands Railway
ScotRail, Transport for Wales, Transport for London (including), Merseyrail and “open-access” operators such as Grand Central, Hull Trains and Lumo are not involved. But their services are likely to be extremely crowded on stretches where they duplicate strike-hit companies.
