New year rail strikes to cripple network for a whole week

RAIL passengers in the West Midlands are set to be hit by more industrial action in the new year as people return to work following the Christmas break.

Trade union Aslef, which represents train drivers, has announced a single day of action on Thursday, January 5 among its members at 15 different rail operators in the longrunning dispute over pay.

This includes Avanti West Coast, which runs a service between New Street, Coventry and London Euston, and Chiltern Railways which operates between Moor Street and London Marylebone via Solihull and Warwickshire.

Also included in the action is CrossCountry, which runs the New Street to Manchester via Staffordshire service, and West Midlands Trains which operates local routes in north Worcestershire, Birmingham and Staffordshire and between Euston, New Street and the North West.

Services to Birmingham International will be affected, meaning likely disruption for those wishing to access the airport, the NEC and Resorts World leisure and shopping complex.

This latest industrial action by Aslef compounds previously announced strikes by the RMT union, set to take place on January 3 and 4 and January 6 and 7 and affecting staff at Network Rail and 14 train operators.

The two combined mean services into and out of Birmingham and across the wider West Midlands are set to be crippled for the entire week following the New Year’s Day bank holiday.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “We don’t want to go on strike but the companies have pushed us into this place.

“They have not offered our members at these companies a penny and these are people who have not had an increase since April 2019.

“That means they expect train drivers at these companies to take a real-terms pay cut, to work just as hard for considerably less, when inflation is running at north of 14 per cent. The train companies say their hands have been tied by the Government while the Government, which does not employ us, says it’s up to the companies to negotiate with us.

“We are always happy to negotiate - we never refuse to sit down at the table and talk - but these companies have offered us nothing and that is unacceptable.”

Aslef previously held five one-day strikes during 2022, including most recently on November 26.