London Underground and rail strikes to disrupt back to work travel

Train strikes planned across London Underground and national rail lines next week will disrupt those returning to work after the Christmas break.

Two train unions, ASLEF and RMT, will strike between Tuesday and Saturday next week, with only around 20 per cent of services expected to operate on those days.

There may also be some possible disruption to services on January 8, as rail workers return to their duties.

On the latest round of strikes, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The union remains available for talks to resolve this dispute.

Rail passengers are being reminded to only travel if it is absolutely necessary, allow extra time for travel and check when their first and last trains will depart.

Trains that do run will start later and finish much earlier than usual – with services typically running between 7.30am and 6.30pm on the day of the strike.

The walkout by train drivers taking part in a strike called by ASLEF on Thursday will affect 15 operators.

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

Daniel Mann, director of industry operations at the Rail Delivery Group, said: “We would advise passengers to only travel if it is absolutely necessary during this period, allow extra time and check when their first and last train will depart.

“Passengers with tickets for between January 3-7 can use their ticket the day before the ticket date, or up to and including Tuesday 10 January.

(Picture: Rail Delivery Group)