New UK rail strike dates announced

ASLEF drivers will stage a fresh series of strikes on January 30th and February 5th in the latest walkout over a long-running pay dispute

Train drivers have called for another series of walkouts in their long running dispute over pay with operators.

Members of the ASLEF union will strike for 24hr between 16 different operators, with each operator only being affected for 1 day, over the 5 days between Tuesday, Januray 30th and Monday, February 5th.

The strike schedule:

Monday 29 January: overtime ban begins.
Tuesday 30 January: strikes on South Western Railway, Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express, Great Northern and Thameslink.
Wednesday 31 January: strikes on Northern and TransPennine Express.
Thursday 1 February: no strike but overtime ban continues.
Friday 2 February: strikes on Greater Anglia, C2C and LNER.
Saturday 3 February: strikes on West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast and East Midlands Railway.
Sunday 4 February: no strike but overtime ban continues.
Monday 5 February: strikes on Great Western, CrossCountry and Chiltern.
Tuesday 6 February: no strike but overtime ban continues for a final day.

Mick Whelan, ASLEF's general secretary, said: "We have given the government every opportunity to come to the table, but it is now a year since we had any contact from the Department for Transport. It's clear they do not want to resolve this dispute."

The strikes, which are set to cripple train services across the country, could be lessened if the government uses the strike as a test for new regulations aimed at easing a minimum level of service during strikes, set at 40% in the transport sector.