Rail strike to cause train travel disruption during Bank Holiday across UK

Rail users are being warned of fresh disruption next week because of more strikes by train drivers in their long-running pay dispute. Some parts of the country will have no services on strike days, while those that do run will start later and finish earlier than usual.

The Aslef union is embroiled in a near two-year long dispute, with no talks held for more than a year. Passengers are being advised to check before they travel between Bank Holiday Monday, May 6, and Saturday, May 11.

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Drivers at 16 train companies will strike for 24 hours on three consecutive dates between Tuesday and Thursday, and there will be an overtime ban on all train companies from Monday to Saturday.

Rail companies said they will operate as many trains as possible but there will be regional variations.

In some places, there may be no trains at all on strike days, and services that are running will typically run between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

Which train company drivers are striking and when?

Train drivers will strike on the following days:

• Tuesday, May 7: c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR's Great Northern, Thameslink and Southern (including Gatwick Express), Southeastern, and South Western Railway.

• Wednesday, May 8: Avanti West Coast, London Northwestern Railway, Chiltern, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, GWR, and West Midlands Trains.

• Thursday, May 9: LNER, Northern, and TransPennine Express.

Aslef says its members have not had a pay rise for five years.

The union has accused the Government of "giving up" trying to resolve the dispute.

A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said: "The rail industry is working hard to keep trains running but it is likely that services on some lines will be affected on the evening before and morning after each strike between May 7 and May 9 because many trains will not be in the right depots to start services the following day.

"Customers should also be aware of Network Rail's engineering works which will take place this coming early May Bank Holiday. Those customers planning to travel around Cambridge, Liverpool and between Birmingham Airport and Rugby/Leamington Spa should check their journeys before setting off.

"We can only apologise to our customers for this wholly unnecessary strike action called by the Aslef leadership which will sadly disrupt journeys once again. It will also inflict further damage on an industry that is receiving up to an additional £54 million a week in taxpayer cash to keep services running, following the Covid downturn."