April rail strikes: When is the train drivers’ walk-out and how will it impact passengers?

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National rail strikes by train drivers will enter their twenty second month with a sequence of rolling walk-outs subsequent month.

Members of the Aslef union plan to halt 1000’s of trains on 5, 6 and 8 April. The goal is to disrupt the 14 rail corporations in England which can be managed by the UK authorities and represented by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG).

In addition, 5 days of time beyond regulation bans will trigger additional cancellations.

The earlier nationwide industrial motion by train drivers, comprising an time beyond regulation ban and “rolling” regional walk-outs, hit for 9 days from 29 January to six February.

The goal of those rolling strikes and the ban on rest-day working is to trigger most disruption for minimal lack of pay.

Industrial motion by Aslef in a dispute over pay and working preparations started in July 2022. The union is demanding a no-strings pay award, however rail corporations – directed by ministers – say any enhance is contingent on radical reforms to working practices so as to scale back public subsidies.

During the dispute, lots of of hundreds of thousands of journeys have been cancelled. Billions of kilos have been misplaced to the UK financial system – notably hospitality companies – and taxpayers are pumping money into an increasingly decrepit and unreliable railway to the tune of £90 per second on high of the regular subsidy.

The quarrel has develop into more and more bitter, with no signal of any progress in direction of a settlement.

The newest walk-outs will be along with two days of strikes by Aslef members who drive trains for the London Underground.

One goal of the subsequent industrial motion is to deliver the capital to a close to standstill on Monday 8 April when the overwhelming majority of Tube and commuter trains will be cancelled.

Caught in the center of a seemingly intractable dispute: the passenger. In a snap social media ballot for The Independent, with 2,142 responses, one in three passengers say they will completely journey much less after the industrial motion lastly ends.

These are the key questions and solutions.

Which rail corporations are concerned?

Aslef is in dispute with the 14 train operators which can be contracted by the UK authorities to offer rail companies. They are:

Intercity operators:

Avanti West Coast

CrossCountry

East Midlands Railway

Great Western Railway (GWR)

LNER

TransPennine Express

Southeast England commuter operators:

C2C

Greater Anglia

GTR (Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Southern, Thameslink)

Southeastern

South Western Railway (together with the Island Line on the Isle of Wight)

Operators specializing in the Midlands and north of England:

Chiltern Railways

Northern Trains

West Midlands Railway (together with London Northwestern Railway)

Which rail corporations aren’t concerned?

ScotRail, Transport for Wales, Transport for London (together with the Elizabeth line), Merseyrail and “open-access” operators corresponding to Grand Central, Hull Trains and Lumo. But their companies are crowded on days of business motion, the place they duplicate journeys of strike-hit firms.

When are the train drivers strolling out?

Drivers belonging to the Aslef union will strike in the following sample:

Friday 5 April

Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains and CrossCountry. The goal is to trigger most disruption on key intercity strains in addition to Midland commuter companies.

Saturday 6 April

Chiltern, GWR, LNER, Northern and TransPennine Trains. This strike is designed to hit rail passengers in the north and west of England, in addition to the day’s soccer programme. In the Premier League, it will hit Newcastle followers travelling to Fulham in London.

Monday 8 April

C2C, Greater Anglia, Great Northern, Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express, South Western Railway. This will hit London notably arduous, with nearly all Tube companies dropped at a halt by the London Underground walkout by Aslef members.

What is the prediction for the results at every operator?

These are the doubtless service patterns based mostly on earlier expertise.

Friday 5 April

The 4 train operators – Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains and CrossCountry – are more likely to cancel all companies.

Saturday 6 April

Chiltern, Northern and TransPennine Trains are more likely to cancel all companies.

GWR and LNER will run a skeleton service on their core strains between round 7am and 7pm.

GWR will run hourly trains between London and Bristol Temple Meads, in addition to a hyperlink from Bristol to Cardiff and some department routes.

LNER will run on its fundamental Edinburgh-Newcastle-York-London line a minimum of as soon as an hour, with some further trains on the southern a part of the community.

Monday 8 April

C2C, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Thameslink and Southeastern are more likely to cancel all companies.

Greater Anglia will run to and from London Liverpool Street to Stansted airport, Southend, Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich.

Southern will run a shuttle service between London Victoria and Gatwick airport.

South Western Railway will run between London Waterloo, Woking and Guildford, with another suburban companies doubtless.

What about the time beyond regulation ban?

Members will additionally refuse to work their relaxation days from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 April and from Monday 8 to Tuesday 9 April. As many rail corporations rely on drivers working time beyond regulation, lots of – probably 1000’s – of trains will be cancelled.

What is at stake?

The train drivers demand a pay rise to replicate excessive ranges of inflation since they final received a pay award; Aslef says some members haven’t had a rise for 5 years.

But the authorities insists that even a modest pay enhance is contingent on radical adjustments to long-standing working preparations so as to scale back prices – and the enormous subsidies the railway is at the moment receiving from the taxpayer.

Since the pandemic, journey patterns have modified. Ticket income is about one-fifth down on pre-Covid ranges. As taxpayers will foot the eventual invoice for the train drivers’ pay rise, the Treasury in addition to the Department for Transport will log out any deal.

Ministers consider train drivers’ phrases and situations are a part of the drawback. To maintain prices down, they have to settle for adjustments to how they work, corresponding to making Sunday a part of the working week all over the place.

On 27 April 2023 the Rail Delivery Group supplied a pay enhance of 4 plus 4 per cent over two years protecting the 2022 and 2023 pay awards – topic to a number of adjustments on phrases and situations, protecting a variety of points together with driver coaching, Sunday working, sick pay and new know-how.

The union say this is utterly unacceptable. The train drivers will negotiate on adjustments, however solely after they get a good no-strings pay supply on high of their present pay.

They consider the cash will be discovered to fulfill their calls for, as it all the time has been in the previous. Aslef has additionally all the time “sold” reforms to working preparations for an additional few per cent on their pay and does intend to alter that course of.

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

What does the union say?

The normal secretary of Aslef, Mick Whelan, mentioned: “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 and 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. That’s why Mark Harper, the transport secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members. Drivers wouldn’t vote for industrial action, again and again and again, if they thought that was a good offer. They don’t. That offer was dead in the water in April last year – and Mr Harper knows that.

“We asked Mr Harper, or his deputy, the rail minister Huw Merriman, to come and meet us. We asked the RDG and the TOCs to come and talk to us. We said, ‘Let’s sit around the table and negotiate.’ Because you say you don’t want any more industrial action, and we don’t want to disrupt the rail network. But the Tories and the TOCs [train operating companies] have given us no choice.

“We have given the government every opportunity to come to the table but it is now clear they do not want to resolve this dispute. They are happy for it go on and on. Because we are not going to give up.

“Many members have now not had a single penny increase in pay for half a decade.”

What do the employers and authorities say?

Earlier this yr, rail minister Huw Merriman informed 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.”

A spokesperson for Rail Delivery Group, representing the train operators, mentioned: “Nobody wins when industrial action impacts people’s lives and livelihoods, and we will work hard to minimise any disruption to our passengers.

“We want to resolve this dispute, but the Aslef leadership need to recognise that hard-pressed taxpayers are continuing to contribute an extra £54 million a week just to keep services running post-Covid.

“We continue to seek an agreement with the Aslef leadership and remain open to talks to find a solution to this dispute.”

What does the Labour Party say?

Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, mentioned: “It is a staggering dereliction of duty that the transport secretary hasn’t got around the table with the unions to try to resolve it since the Christmas before last.

“Labour will take an unashamedly different approach to the Tories, and will work with both sides to reach a deal in the interests of passengers and workers. If the transport secretary took this sensible approach then perhaps we wouldn’t still be having strikes on our railways.”

How a lot has all the disruption price?

According to the RDG, industrial motion from June 2022 up till mid-January 2024 price the rail sector round £775m in misplaced income. That doesn’t embrace the impact of the most up-to-date strikes and time beyond regulation bans, which most likely add an additional £100m to the losses.

UKHospitality estimates the misplaced enterprise for locations to eat, drink and keep quantities to nearly £5 billion. Kate Nicholls, the organisation’s chief government, says: “Ongoing strike action hurts businesses, prevents people from getting to work and significantly erodes confidence in the rail network.”

In addition, there is an unknowable lack of income from passengers who’ve adjusted their life or discovered various types of transport; companies which have stopped making journeys and are utilizing on-line communication as an alternative; and individuals trimming again on journey due to the lack of certainty.

What about the new minimal service ranges regulation?

Legislation now permits the transport secretary to stipulate minimal service ranges (MSLs) on strike days amounting to 40 per cent of the regular service. The authorities says the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 goals “to ensure that the public can continue to access services that they rely on, during strike action”.

No train operator is looking for to impose the new regulation on the train drivers’ union. LNER mentioned it would possibly accomplish that earlier this yr, and opened consultations. Aslef instantly known as a separate five-day strike on LNER alone. Then the train operator mentioned it wouldn’t require drivers to work, and the strike was known as off.

The Transport Select Committee has beforehand warned of potential unintended penalties of the laws. The Conservative chair, Iain Stewart, mentioned: “There is a risk of MSLs worsening worker-employer relations and that, as a result, MSLs could end up making services less reliable.”

The minimal service stage guidelines don’t apply to union bans on non-contractual rest-day working – so there could be no profit in imposing the regulation when an time beyond regulation ban is in drive.

What is the Tube dispute about?

Train drivers members of Aslef working for the London Underground will stroll out on Monday 8 April and Saturday 4 May, bringing nearly the complete Tube community to a standstill.

Finn Brennan, Aslef’s full-time organiser for the Tube, blamed the employer for desirous to impose adjustments to working preparations, saying: “They want drivers to work longer shifts, spending up to 25 per cent more time in the cab, and to remove all current working agreements in the name of ‘flexibility and efficiency’.”

A Transport for London spokesperson mentioned: “We have been in long-term discussions with our trade union colleagues on how to modernise procedures and processes on London Underground to improve the experience both for staff and customers.

“We have no plans to impose these changes and have committed to no one losing their job as part of these changes, and we have engaged with our unions to demonstrate that no change will be made that compromises our steadfast commitment to safety on the Tube network.

“We urge Aslef to continue discussions with us so that disruption for Londoners can be averted.”