Today marks the start of the nine-day overtime restriction by Aslef train drivers, which will severely impede travel for rail customers.
A prohibition on overtime for all rail operators starting today and lasting until Tuesday, February 6, is expected to result in thousands of trains being cancelled at short notice throughout the United Kingdom every day.
There will also be one-day strikes across 17 different operators from tomorrow until Monday, February 5.
In an ongoing battle with train companies over wages and working conditions, the drivers’ union Aslef declared the first rail strike of 2024 on January 15.
Tuesday’s disruption will affect all of London’s major rail services, including Southern, Gatwick Express, and Govia Thameslink Railway, as well as South Western Railway and Southeastern.
In significant portions of the network, there will be adjustments to services, and some train operators will not be operating any trains at all; therefore, passengers are advised to check before they travel.
The services that are normally available between 7.30 am and 6.30 pm may begin and end significantly sooner than usual.
MailOnline disclosed yesterday that rail managers have been receiving enormous bonuses and salary increases while neglecting to implement new legislation intended to lessen the effects of strikes.
None of the 18 operators hit by the nine days of walkouts by train drivers is implementing the requirement to provide at least 40 per cent of normal services.
It means the industrial action will cause yet more misery for passengers.
Tory MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith accused rail bosses of ‘rank cowardice’, saying: ‘If the law is there, then you use it. All the public want is a sense of what the minimum service will be – not leaving it in the hands of the unions to decide.’
A Mail analysis revealed that executives of private train companies received enormous compensation, finding:
- Annual rises in total pay and perks of 61 per cent for the highest-paid executive at Arriva and 35 per cent for the top boss at former operator Abellio UK;
- Bonuses of £1.3million were shared by FirstGroup’s top executives Graham Sutherland and Ryan Mangold last year, and a £540,000 bonus was paid to then chief executive of Go-Ahead, Christian Schreyer, in 2022;
- The Chinese and German governments could have benefited from tens of millions of pounds in profits at franchises run by transport firms they co-own. MTR, co-owned by the Hong Kong government, effectively controlled by Beijing – made £70million in six years.
The drivers’ union, Aslef, has described the work stoppage as a wage dispute, even though its members make an average base salary of about £60,000.
These days, it seems like chaos reigns everywhere.
When will they understand that the people are not rooting for them? The public no longer respects them after the previous two years of strikes, cancelled and delayed trains, and exorbitant costs.
The whole British railway system is a joke and an embarrassment to the UK.
In this country, taking the train is a risk. They are badly managed and operated, and the union has too much sway. The union will never permit the modernization of the entire system, even though it is necessary.
We were promised in the 1980s that privatisation would cure all the issues in the state-owned services, yet here we with all the same problems, still supplying state-funded subsidies, more pollution in our rivers and billions being siphoned off untaxed, what went wrong?
How do these train drivers manage on 65k plus generous holidays, benefits, and early retirement packages? Poor darlings.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 