Train drivers working for Great Northern, Thameslink and Greater Anglia will all down tools on Monday as part of a long-running pay dispute

Great Northern train (credit Govia Thameslink)

Key rail routes through Enfield borough will again be severely affected by striking train drivers next week.

Members of the Aslef union will stage their latest strike on Monday, 8th April, while an overtime ban is in place across all train companies from today (Thursday 4th) until Saturday 6th and from Monday 8th until Tuesday 9th.

On Monday Great Northern and Thameslink – both run by operator Govia Thameslink – as well as Greater Anglia will not be operating any stopping services along their routes through Enfield, Barnet and Haringey boroughs.

On the other days, where there are overtime bans, timetables may be amended and services could be cancelled at short notice. Passengers are advised to always check before they travel.

So far during the 20-month dispute with train operating companies, Aslef has called 14 one-day strikes.

The union’s general secretary Mick Whelan said: “Last month, when we announced renewed mandates for industrial action, because, under the Tories’ draconian anti-union laws, we have to ballot our members every six months, we called on the train companies, and the government, to come to the table for meaningful talks to negotiate a new pay deal for train drivers who have not had an increase in salary since 2019.

“Our members voted overwhelmingly – yet again – for strike action. Those votes show – yet again – a clear rejection by train drivers of the ridiculous offer put to us in April last year by the Rail Delivery Group which knew that offer would be rejected because a land grab for all the terms & conditions we have negotiated over the years would never be accepted by our members.

“Since then train drivers have voted, time and again, to take action in pursuit of a pay rise.”

A spokesperson for Rail Delivery Group, which represents rail operators, said: “There are no winners from these strikes that will unfortunately cause disruption for our customers. We believe rail can have a bright future, but right now taxpayers are contributing an extra £54m a week to keep services running post-Covid.

“Aslef’s leadership need to recognise the financial challenge facing rail. Drivers have been made an offer which would take base salaries to nearly £65,000 for a four-day week before overtime – that is well above the national average and significantly more than many of our customers that have no option to work from home are paid.

“Instead of staging more damaging industrial action, we call on the Aslef leadership to work with us to resolve this dispute and deliver a fair deal which both rewards our people, and makes the changes needed to make services more reliable.”

However, in better news, previously planned tube strikes by Aslef on 8th April and 4th May have been cancelled after the union issued a statement saying that “key issues” had been “successfully resolved […] without the need for strikes”.

For more information about Greater Anglia services during the strikes:
Visit greateranglia.co.uk/strikes

For more information about Great Northern and Thameslink services during the strikes:
Visit thameslinkrailway.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/industrial-action

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