Sunday train cancellation chaos awaits hundreds of thousands of passengers

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For hundreds of thousands of rail passengers, Sunday will show chaotic. There aren’t any precise rail strikes: it’s a one-day pause within the present spherical of walkouts by train drivers. Yet their extra time ban continues, and in consequence, thousands of trains might be cancelled.

Large swathes of the nation might be with out trains, with West Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway and Chiltern Railways cancelling all their companies.

In addition, key intercity hyperlinks together with London to Bristol, Cardiff and Cambridge might be closed to passengers and plenty of different traces might be affected.

Here we check out the important thing questions and solutions forward of the day of journey chaos:

Remind me in regards to the industrial motion on the railways?

Many rail passengers could really feel the strikes have been occurring endlessly. In truth, the primary nationwide rail walkouts because the Nineteen Eighties started in the summertime of 2022.

The bigger rail union, the RMT, has ended its marketing campaign of strikes for now. But Aslef, the smaller but extra highly effective train drivers’ union, is as removed from an settlement as ever with the 14 English rail companies whose operations are managed by the federal government.

Since the dispute started, Aslef has referred to as common strikes and bans on rest-day working. Train drivers are presently within the center of a nine-day spell of industrial motion, comprising an extra time ban and “rolling” regional strikes.

On Saturday, it hit passengers on the West Coast foremost line and East Midlands community. Tomorrow it’s the flip of West of England and CrossNation routes.

What’s totally different this time?

It’s solely the second time in 19 months of strikes and extra time bans by train drivers that Aslef has included Sunday in a prohibition on rest-day working. On different days of the week, extra time bans trigger cancellations as a result of many rail companies don’t have sufficient train drivers to cowl their schedules with out bringing in employees on extra time.

Aslef says no train operator “employs enough drivers to provide the service they promise passengers and businesses they will deliver without asking drivers to work their days off”.

The impact of an extra time ban on Sunday companies might be dramatic. While employees on most varieties of public transport, resembling buses and planes, might be required to work on any day of the week, Sunday is a day of relaxation for a lot of rail employees. Train drivers whose contracts don’t have Sunday within the working week are completely entitled to decide on to not work. As a outcome, giant swathes of the nation might be with out rail companies – with the Midlands and the West of England significantly exhausting hit.

So in regular occasions do rail companies depend on train drivers working extra time to cowl Sundays?

Yes, in some elements of the nation. And not simply train drivers, different rail employees as properly. Even inside the identical rail agency, the Sunday rule can fluctuate. Northern Trains employees who’re based mostly west of the Pennines shouldn’t have Sunday included of their working week, whereas their colleagues on the east aspect of the vary should work on Sundays if instructed to take action.

On Great Western, solely newer train drivers are required to work on any day of the week. Those who joined over seven years in the past can select whether or not or to not work Sundays.

What in regards to the new Minimum Service Levels regulation?

Even if a number of of the train operators had determined to impose “Minimum Service Levels” because the regulation now permits them to do, it could make no distinction – as a result of the brand new guidelines can’t pressure individuals to work on their days off.

Where are the important thing Sunday issues?

Chiltern Railways, which connects London with Oxford and Birmingham, says no trains will run in any respect anyplace on its community. The identical applies for West Midlands Railway and London Northwestern Railway. That means dozens of stations will see no trains in any respect, together with each station on the road between London Euston and Rugby besides Watford Junction and Milton Keynes.

For the primary time on any day with industrial motion, Great Western won’t join London with Bristol. Trains from the capital will go no additional west than Swindon, which implies Cardiff can be reduce off from London.

Great Northern has issued a “Do Not Travel” discover for some routes together with London to Cambridge and King’s Lynn. And C2C, serving south Essex, says it is going to have a “severely reduced service”.

On prime of that ban on rest-day working in addition to deliberate engineering work between Birmingham and Wolverhampton on the West Coast foremost line and between London King’s Cross and Stevenage on the East Coast foremost line.

The Gatwick Express between the capital and the Sussex airport is suspended because of the extra time ban, as is the Night Riviera sleeper train between London Paddington and Penzance.

What’s on the root of the dispute?

Since the pandemic, journey patterns have modified. Ticket income is about one-fifth down on pre-Covid ranges. The public subsidy to maintain the railway operating is presently operating at over £17,000 per minute – an increase of 43 per cent on the same old subsidy, in keeping with the federal government. As taxpayers will foot the eventual invoice for the train drivers’ pay rise, the Department for Transport will log off any deal. Ministers consider train drivers phrases and situations are half of the issue.

To maintain prices down, they have to settle for modifications to how they work, resembling making Sunday half of the working week in every single place. The union say that is utterly unacceptable. The train drivers will negotiate on such modifications, however solely after they get an honest no-strings pay supply on prime of their present pay, averaging £60,000 a yr. They’ve at all times “sold” reforms to working preparations for an additional few per cent on their pay, they usually don’t intend to cease now. Stuck within the center: the passenger.

What are the warring sides saying?

Rail minister Huw Merriman advised The Independent: “We believe a fair and reasonable offer is there on the table for Aslef if they put it to their members. These are train drivers that are paid an average £60,000 for a 35-hour, four-day week. The pay deal would take them up to £65,000.”

But Mick Whelan, normal secretary of Aslef, says it’s a garbage deal that he can’t presumably put to his members – some of whom haven’t had a pay rise for 5 years. He says ministers have refused to have interaction with the union for over a yr. He advised The Independent: “Any industrial action is incredibly damaging, but after 18 months out on strike, and after a year with no one in the government or the [train operating] companies talking to us, we are forced to raise the profile of our issues.”

One rail business insider mentioned the Sunday transfer by Aslef might transform counter-productive for the union – by drawing consideration to the restrictive agreements that ministers say they need to reform.

Meanwhile, the corrosion in confidence amongst travellers continues, with no rail passenger capable of plan journeys greater than two weeks forward – that being the minimal discover the union should give for industrial motion.