Sheffield train strike: The rail services affected as ASLEF confirms action in October

Drivers at 12 train operators will walk out on October 1 and 5, affecting travel to and from the Conservative party conference in Birmingham.

What Sheffield train services are affected by Aslef October rail strike?

Operators serving Sheffield who will be affected are CrossCountry, Northern Trains and TransPennine Express; which will affect links to cities including Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds, as well as local services.

Elsewhere in South Yorkshire, LNER, which links Doncaster and London, will also be affected.

But East Midlands Railways, Sheffield’s mainline link to London, is not affected. ASLEF is currently balloting members on EMR to see if they want to take industrial action, and is waiting for that ballot result. They would then have to give the employer 14 days’ notice prior to any strike.

A planned strike by drivers on September 15 was called off as a mark of respect following the Queen’s death.

Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary, said: “We would much rather not be in this position. We don’t want to go on strike – withdrawing your labour, although a fundamental human right, is always a last resort for this trade union – but the train companies have been determined to force our hand.

“They are telling train drivers to take a real terms pay cut. With inflation now running at 12.3 per cent – and set, it is said, to go higher – these companies are saying that drivers should be prepared to work just as hard, for just as long, but for considerably less.

“The companies with whom we are in dispute have not offered us a penny. It is outrageous that they expect us to put up with a real terms pay cut for a third year in a row. And that’s why we are going on strike. To persuade the companies to be sensible, to do the right thing, and come and negotiate properly with us. Not to run up and say, ‘Our hands are tied and the government will not allow us to offer you an increase.

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“Train drivers kept Britain moving – key workers and goods around the country – throughout the pandemic and we deserve to be treated better than this. That’s why we are calling on the companies – which are making big profits, and paying their chief executives enormous salaries and bonuses – to make a pay offer to our members to keep up with the rise in the cost of living.”

The rail companies affected by October train strike

ASLEF members at 12 companies – Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, LNER, London Overground, Northern Trains, Southeastern, TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains – will strike on October 1 and October 5.

In August, protesters gathered at Sheffield Station for a rally in support of striking rail workers and to protest over the cost of living crisis.

At that event, RMT’s South Yorkshire organiser Gaz Jackson, members were determined to win their dispute, and some of those striking had not had a pay rise for three or four years.