Train drivers with the trade union ASLEF are on strike again this week (January 30 – February 5) as they enter a third year of dispute with 14 privatised rail operators.

The strikes have affected train operators including Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, Great Northern, GTR Thameslink, South Western Railway main line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line.

They have caused widespread disruption, and passengers have been advised to check with their respective train operators for the latest updates on the situation.

Drivers are stopping work region-by-region over the course of the week, couple with a nine-day ban on overtime that started on January 29 and will end on February 6.

Amazingly, the Tory government’s ministerial mouthpiece on the morning media round today (Tuesday, January 30) claimed he did not know why drivers were on strike:

ASLEF’s general secretary, Mick Whelan, explained why this might be, when he said neither the government nor the train operating firms had engaged with the union for a year.

In a Sky News TV interview, he added:

The government and rail firms say they have offered to raise average pay for drivers from £60,000 to £65,000 per year. That’s an increase of 8 1/3 per cent on the pay rate five years ago, which strikes This Writer as low – for example, MP salaries increased by 12 per cent in the five years between 2018 and 2023.

But which side will have public sympathy, in a country where the national mass media are rich businesspeople’s lapdogs?

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