Industrial action by train drivers continues to disrupt services

Rail services continued to be disrupted on Sunday because of ongoing industrial action by train drivers in their long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

A series of strikes started last week coupled with an overtime ban which has led to widespread cancellations across England, causing travel chaos for passengers.

Chiltern Railways said none of its services will run on Sunday because of the overtime ban, which was also causing disruption to other train operators.

Aslef members at Chiltern, Great Western Railway (GWR) and CrossCountry will be on strike on Monday, leading to widespread cancelations of services.

Chiltern and CrossCountry will not run any trains on Monday while GWR said its services will be “extremely limited”.

GWR also warned of disruption to services on Sunday because of the overtime ban, which ends on Tuesday, urging its customers to travel on alternative days.

A statement said: “On Monday, a reduced, revised timetable will operate across several train operators, including GWR.

“Many parts of the GWR network will have no service at all and trains that are running will only be operating for a limited period during the day.”

GWR services that do run on Monday will start at 7am and finish about 7pm.

“On the days after strikes, services could also be affected by a limited number of short-notice cancellations and alterations,” said GWR.

The dispute started 20 months ago and remains deadlocked, with no talks planned.

Aslef says it has not met transport ministers for more than a year, and employers since last April, when the union rejected a pay offer linked to changes in working practices.

Train operators and the Government insist the offer is “fair and reasonable”, and has urged the union to ballot its members.

Aslef said that regular reballots on continuing with industrial action, as required under law, have returned huge votes in favour.