Scots rail passengers face disruption as train drivers strike in pay dispute

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Cross border rail services will be severely disrupted this week by a train drivers strike in a long-running pay dispute.Members of Aslef will walk out at services on Avanti West Coast and CrossCountry on Wednesday.

This is part of wider strikes down south.A strike will also be held on Thursday at LNER and TransPennine Express.Services will be crippled for the day, with few trains running.

Those that do run will start later and finish earlier than usual.ScotRail services will not be disrupted.Avanti West Coast runs trains between Glasgow and London, while CrossCountry runs services going to England from Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.LNER runs trains between Edinburgh and London, while TransPennine Express services go between Glasgow, Ediburgh and cities in the north of England.An ongoing overtime ban at 16 train operators is continuing until Saturday which is also causing disruption.Passengers are being urged to check before attempting to travel by train this week.The dispute is now the longest ever in the rail industry.Aslef said its members have not had a pay rise for five years and has accused the Government of “giving up” trying to resolve the dispute.

A UK Department for Transport spokesperson said: “The Transport Secretary and Rail Minister have already facilitated a pay offer that would take train drivers’ average salaries up to £65,000 – almost twice the UK average salary. “Aslef are the only union left striking after the Government oversaw deals with all the other unions.“Instead of causing passengers disruption, they should put this offer to their members and work with industry to end this dispute.”There is a glimmer of hope that negotiations will start in a bid to resolve the row after the Rail