Trains cancelled in London Midland pay row

Just three services will be run by train operator London Midland this Sunday, with a pay dispute leading to a shortage of drivers.

Some London Midland drivers are refusing to work overtime in a row over pay.

This means the company — which normally operates trains through Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall, Dudley, Stourbridge, Cannock and Birmingham and on to London, Liverpool, and Worcester — is operating a reduced timetable across its network on Sunday.

The three services set to run include an hourly service from Lichfield to Blake Street and an hourly service from Milton Keynes to London. Four trains an hour from Stourbridge Town to Stourbridge Junction will also run.

Everything else is expected to be cancelled.

This includes the service from Wolverhampton to Birmingham, which stops at Coseley, Tipton, Dudley Port and Smethwick Galton Bridge, plus the service from Birmingham to Kidderminster, which stops at Rowley Regis and Stourbridge.

Spokesman Richard Lakin said: "We apologise for the disruption this is causing but there is nothing we can do. Unfortunately the number of cancelled services means we won't be able to offer replacement bus services."

The firm is in a dispute with drivers' union Aslef.

It comes after the train operator, which has been paying its drivers double time to work Sundays, cut this to time-and-a-half. Drivers receive a basic annual salary of nearly £40,000.

In a statement yesterday, London Midland said it was being "held to ransom by excess union demands". But Aslef general secretary Keith Norman said that was "utterly untrue". He said: "London Midland appears to be looking for a scapegoat for its own incompetence."