The
first
of
two
24-hour
walkouts
by
drivers
this
week


has
closed
most
of
the
passenger
railway
system
in
Britain.

Trains
are
running
where
their
operators
are
not
in
dispute
with
the
unions,
so
that
services
are
normal
on
c2c,
Caledonian
Sleeper,
Merseyrail,
South
Western
Railway
(apart
from
Island
Line)
and
Transport
for
Wales.
ScotRail
drivers
are
also
booking
on
as
usual,
although
there
is
disruption
between
Ladybank
and
Kirkcaldy
because
of
a
signal
fault.

There
are
limited
services
on
GWR,
Greater
Anglia
(including
Stansted
Express)
and
LNER,
but
not
all
stations
are
being
served
and
services
are
starting
later
and
finishing
earlier
than
usual.

Urban
services
such
as
London
Overground,
London
Underground,
Docklands
Light
Railway,
Tyne
&
Wear
Metro
and
Merseyrail
are
unaffected,
while
Eurostar
and
other
open
access
operators
are
also
working
normally.

Members
of
the
drivers’
union
ASLEF
are
staging
pickets
at
stations
and
depots,
while
the
relatively
few
driver
members
of
the
RMT
are
also
joining
the
walkouts.

ASLEF
had
rejected
the
most
recent
pay
proposal
on
17
January,
after
a
meeting
with
the
new
rail
minister
Huw
Merriman
eight
days
earlier.

General
secretary
Mick
Whelan
said:
‘It’s
now
clear
to
our
members,
and
to
the
public,
that
this
was
never
about
reform
or
modernisation
but
an
attempt
to
get
hundreds
of
millions
of
pounds
of
productivity
for
a
20
per
cent
pay
cut
while
taking
away
any
hope
of
the
union
having
any
say
in
the
future.
Irreparable
harm
has
been
done
to
the
integrity
of
the
negotiating
process
and
the
future
ability
to
negotiate
an
appropriate
way
forward,
but
we
make
ourselves
available
anyway.

‘Not
only
is
the
offer
a
real-terms
pay
cut,
with
inflation
running
north
of
10
per
cent,
but
it
came
with
so
many
conditions
attached
that
it
was
clearly
unacceptable.
They
want
to
rip
up
our
terms
and
conditions
in
return
for
a
real-terms
pay
cut.
It
was
clearly
a
rushed
offer,
made
just
before
our
meeting
with
the
minister,
and
not
one,
it
seems
to
me,
that
was
designed
to
be
accepted.’

The
Rail
Delivery
Group
said:
‘Having
made
an
initial
offer
which
would
have
taken
average
driver
salaries
from
£60,000
to
nearly
£65,000,
we
had
hoped
the
ASLEF
leadership
would
engage
constructively
to
move
talks
forward,
rather
than
staging
more
unnecessary
strikes.
We
can
only
apologise
for
the
disruption.’

A
second
walkout
has
been
called
for
Friday.