January and February rail strikes: Nationwide train disruption on its way as Aslef plan weeks of walk-outs

Nationwide rail strikes have entered their third year, with a series of “rolling” walk-outs planned to disrupt the journeys of millions of passengers across England in late January and early February.

Train drivers belonging to Aslef will stop work region-by-region over the course of a week between Tuesday 30 January and Monday 5 February. Thousands of trains are likely to be cancelled on each day.

The effect will be exacerbated by a nine-day ban on overtime running from 29 January to 6 February.

The strikes are designed to cause maximum disruption over an extended spell, but with train drivers each losing only one day’s pay. It mirrors the rolling industrial action at the start of December 2023. The schedule is:

In terms of sheer number of passengers hit, Monday 29 January will be the most disruptive. It is aimed at commuters in southeast England, the majority of whom use the affected train operators.

Intercity travellers will be worst affected on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 February, when the main operators on the East Coast and West Coast main lines, as well as the Midland mainline, will be hit.

Sunday 4 February is also likely to be severely disrupted because of the ban on rest-day working.

Aslef says no train operator “employs enough drivers to provide the service they promise passengers and businesses they will deliver without asking drivers to work their days off”.

ScotRail, Transport for Wales, Transport for London (including the Elizabeth Line), Merseyrail and “open-access” operators such as Grand Central, Hull Trains and Lumo are not involved.

The effects may be reduced if the transport secretary, Mark Harper, uses new legislation to impose “minimum service levels” (MSLs).

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