Train strikes 2023 today: Which rail services are affected?

Passengers across the UK face further disruption on Saturday as the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and Aslef stage additional industrial action.

Members of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, walked out on Friday and will refuse to work overtime on Saturday.

Up to 20,000 RMT union members at 14 operators will also strike on Saturday as part of a long-running dispute over pay.

The strikes are expected to throw travel plans into chaos on the last weekend of the school holidays.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “The Government appears happy to let passengers, and businesses, suffer in the mistaken belief that they can bully us into submission.

“They don’t care about passengers, or Britain’s railway, but they will not break us.

“Train drivers at these companies have not had a pay rise for four years, since 2019, while inflation has rocketed.”

Aslef has walked out on 11 occasions, while the RMT has staged 33 days of industrial action during the ongoing dispute.

When are the train strikes?

• Saturday September 2 (RMT strike, Aslef overtime ban)

Which rail companies are affected?

The train companies affected are: 

• Avanti West Coast
• C2C
• Caledonian Sleeper
• Chiltern Railways
• CrossCountry
• East Midlands Railway
• Gatwick Express
• Greater Anglia
• GWR
• GTR Great Northern Thameslink
• Heathrow Express
• Island Line
• LNER
• Northern Trains
• Southeastern
• Southern
• Gatwick Express
• South Western Railway main line
• Stanstead Express
• SWR depot drivers
• TransPennine Express
• West Midlands Trains.

Advice for travelling during train strikes

National Rail warns passengers to expect “significant disruption” on strike days. Services are also likely to be disrupted and start later on the day immediately after.

National Rail has recommended that passengers:

• Use its Journey Planner. Passengers should check close to the time of each strike date.
• Use its Live Trains page for the most up-to-date information about arrivals and departures
• Plan ahead and check before you travel. This includes checking your entire journey, especially if you’re travelling on the first and last trains of strike days.

Train station ticket office closures

Nearly all railway station ticket offices are being shut and staff moved on to station platform and concourse duties, according to the Rail Delivery Group (RDG). Ticket office facilities will remain open only at the busiest stations.

Posters are being displayed in stations informing passengers about potential closures. The Government will make the final decision on which offices will be axed following a consultation. It is not known how quickly the first offices will shut, but the closure programme is expected to last for three years.

Why are 20,000 rail workers striking?

The RMT has accused train operators of failing to make a new pay offer to end the long-running industrial action. 

Mr Lynch said: “My team of negotiators and I are available 24/7 for talks with the train operating companies and government ministers.

“Yet, quite incredibly, neither party has made any attempt whatsoever to arrange any meetings or put forward a decent offer that can help us reach a negotiated solution.”

According to the RMT, the Government “contractually sets the negotiating parameters” of the 14 train operators, and is blocking them from making new concessions. 

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train operators affected, described the latest strikes “totally unnecessary”. 

Responding to RMT’s announcement, a Rail Delivery Group spokesman said: “We have now made three offers that the RMT executive have blocked without a convincing explanation.

“We remain open to talks and we have said repeatedly that we want to give our people a pay rise, but until the union leadership and executive is united in what it wants and engages in good faith with the 30pc shortfall in revenue the industry is continuing to grapple with post-Covid, it is difficult to move forward.

“Sadly our staff, our customers and the communities across the country which rely on a thriving railway are the ones that are suffering as a result.”

RMT’s members in May renewed the union’s industrial mandate to continue strike action for another six months.

Why are Aslef drivers refusing to work overtime?

The train drivers’ union has been embroiled in a year-long pay dispute, having already staged several strikes since last summer.

The RDG had offered a 4pc increase in 2022 followed by another 4pc rise in 2023.

Aslef’s Mr Whelan said the proposal “was clearly not designed to be accepted” as inflation is much higher, meaning the offer represents a pay cut in real terms.

The train drivers had not had a pay rise since 2019, he added.

To qualify for the first 4pc boost the companies would need to commit to drivers adopting new routes faster to help plug gaps in the service and using technology to train new staff more quickly.

The second year of pay rises would hinge on “the successful conclusion” of talks on reforms which would make drivers scheduled to work on Sundays contractually committed to do so if there was no alternative cover.

The RDG said this change was vital as leisure travel had rebounded much more strongly than commuter and business journeys and now stands at 116pc of pre-Covid levels.

The group also required that the control of staff work and training schedules was put “back in the hands of the employers”.

Yet the train drivers’ union said the 8pc offer over two years that would lift the average driver’s salary from around £60,000 to just below £65,000 was insufficient.

Inflation has largely been in double digits since July last year and remained at 10.4pc in March, the latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows.

It means the pay offer would still be a considerable pay cut in real terms.

An RDG spokesman said: “More strike action is totally unnecessary and will only heap more pressure on an industry already facing an acute financial crisis.”

This article is being kept updated with the latest news daily.