Train passengers are facing ten consecutive days of chaos on the railways next month when drivers start an overtime ban.
Govia Thameslink Rail (GTR) is advising passengers to check every journey from 1 December to 10 December, as timetables will change every day.
It says trains may start and finish earlier and on some days a small number of stations will have no service at all.
Services will be much busier than usual, especially in the peak hours. There will be some disruption and long queues. Passengers may not be able to board their chosen service and should allow extra time for their journeys.
Jenny Saunders, Customer Services Director, said: “We’re really sorry for the disruption customers will experience as we make significant timetable changes during this period of sustained national industrial action.
“I strongly urge customers to check every journey, every day, so they aren’t caught out.
“No two consecutive days will be the same, so please plan all your journeys carefully, including any connections with other operators, in advance at nationalrail.co.uk, and once again before you set off.
“Industrial action is terrible for everyone, and we hope for a national resolution as soon as possible.”
Members of the Aslef union, which represents train drivers and is asking for a significant pay rise, are taking part in the overtime ban from Friday, 1 December to Saturday, 9 December.
On Sunday, 10 December, a new winter timetable begins.
- On Saturday 2 December (network wide) and Sunday 3 December (Southern only) trains will start later and finish earlier. Southern stations west of Barnham near the south coast will have no service on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday there will be no trains additionally east of Eastbourne.
- On Sunday 3 December no Great Northern or Thameslink trains will run due to strike action.
- On Monday 4 December Thameslink and Great Northern trains will restart between 0700 and 0900 due to the knock-on effect of strike action the day before.
- On Wednesday 6 December no Southern trains will run due to strike action, except for a limited shuttle service for airport customers, calling at London Victoria and Gatwick Airport only, between 7am and 11pm.
- On Wednesday 6 December, the strike at Southeastern means that, for operational reasons, our Thameslink trains between Sevenoaks and Blackfriars will not be able to run via Bat and Ball, Otford, Eynsford, Shoreham, Swanley and St Mary Cray.
- On Thursday 7 December Southern trains will restart between 0700 and 0900 due to the knock-on effect of strike action the day before.
- On Saturday 9 December (network wide) trains will start later and finish earlier, and stations west of Barnham near the south coast will have no service.
- On Sunday, 10 December, a new winter timetable begins.
Online journey planners such as nationalrail.co.uk have been updated with the first three days of service, from 1-3 December and the remaining days’ travel will follow shortly.
Neighbouring train operators are also affected by the overtime ban and strikes on different days which may make our stations and trains even busier.
If a journey involves using another train company, passengers must check with them for any changes to their services and ensure their onward connections are available on the day they are travelling.
Sporting events will also be affected. Football fans should check online journey planners. They may need to find other ways to reach the games as there will be either no trains at all or none for the return trip.
Unfortunately, rail replacement bus services cannot be provided on strike days due to the scale of the action. This includes those previously put in place for engineering work.
Is this really an overtime “ban” or are train drivers just choosing not to work overtime?
Does it make any difference?
They should employ enough staff to cover all the work to begin with.
And if they can’t find the staff, tailor the timetable to fit the number of staff available, without the need for overtime.
Is there strike on the 8 has I’m going to Scarborough from York will I have problems
You should check on the train operators website!
No different from the reliable, punctual, clean, affordable “service” they run normally then.
Thameslink: “We’re with you”. Except they got rid of the safety-critical guards, and have complete contempt for consumer and contract law, never mind the disability discrimination.
Yet the DfT won’t nationalise it as they are ultimately responsible, GTR being the most micro-managed train company of them all!!!!
Even most Tory voters want re-nationalisation. Get rid of them now, instead of the taxpayer bankrolling “private” incompetence, we can have “public” instead!!
Can anyone remember trains before dentationalisation?
What was the point of privatisation if operators have a geographic monopoly? I can’t avoid the strikes by using a different company so there’s no reason for them to change.
There have not been ‘safety-critical guards’ on the Thameslink route, since the inception of Thameslink services in 1988.
It actually went back further than that, with the introduction of BedPan Line services between Bedford and St Pancras, where the rotten Driver Only Operation method of working began.
GTR is Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern. Don’t believe the marketing spiel. They will soon have their day(s) in court.
I’m looking forward to the day when the U.K. railway starts adopting the Copenhagen Metro model of no drivers or other staff on trains and enough station staff to assist those requiring help. Copenhagen has the advantage that it started with a blank sheet of paper when designing its system. It’s fully accessible too.
Closest we have to that is the DLR, and most of their “Passenger Service Assistants” (aka the Guard who can manually drive) are members of the RMT. We are more likely to see Maglev trains than anything like Copenhagen Metro style services anywhere on the UK network, given the complexity of our system and inoperability thanks to privatisation.
The cost of that would be in the hundreds of billions of pounds to implement on a national wide rail system not a small cities metro.
Where is that going to come from?
A Christmas present from Aslef to all passengers. I remember when, during nationalisation, strikes were a very common feature of life in Britain.
Train drivers striking on they pay they earn is disgusting. A lot of people who rely on this service earn a fraction of your ludicrous salary and it wrecks their lives. £65k for pulling a lever and making a train move honestly is a joke and it undermines legitimate
trade union action when other industries go on strike who genuinely work harder, more skilled Jobs such a nurses. The government are to blame really because they should just open up a train driver school and force the rail companies to employ the correct amount of staff, and make the railway an essential services.
If a soldier and a police officer can’t strike but earn half what a train driver earns, how can they justify striking.
Quite agree Dave
It is selfish behaviour from the train drivers and Aslef, I adopt Daves comments.
I earn a lot less than those drivers and work 5 days a week plus overtime at weekends, I have had to save for two events next week in London which im not likely be able to attend, which means not only do I miss two shows that are only on this year, I will lose my money for the tickets, that i worked hard for. This are having a knock on effect on the cost of living crisis, and building our economy back up, very shameful.
Whilst I agree with the point that train drivers already earn a good salary, I do feel there is a disappointing level of ignorance in the statement that train drivers just “pull a lever and make a train move”. Drivers are not just responsible for driving the train and making it go and stop. It isn’t like a train set and it is a bit naive to think it is. Responsibility for the train being safe to run, for ensuring passengers are safe both when the train is running or if there is a problem. The route they drive has to be learned and then “signed for” to say they know it backward as well as forwards, and by that I mean every curve, signal, bridge, tunnel, speed restriction (temporary and permanent). The responsibility of moving a whole train load of 1,500+ passengers at peak hours single handed without incident, might seem trivial to the person sitting inside the carriage, but it is a lot on the shoulders of the one person at the front who is making it happen.
I do actually think that the drivers deserve a decent pay rise but I also think in the present climate they should accept what has already been offered in terms of pay and save the energy that will inevitably be needed to fight terms & conditions of employment as the DfT continues to drift away from the real world of running a railway.
£65,000 a year? To whom do I send my CV to?