Members of ASLEF at most train operators in England have started a week-long overtime ban today, and a series of one-day strikes is set to begin tomorrow at Govia Thameslink Railway, Southeastern and South Western Railway. Northern and TransPennine Express will be affected on Wednesday, c2c, Greater Anglia and LNER on Friday, and Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway and West Midlands Railway on Saturday. There will be no walkouts on Sunday, but a final round of 24-hour strikes will be staged by ASLEF drivers at Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry and GWR on Monday, while the overtime ban will also run until Monday. ASLEF had planned a further five days of strikes on LNER from next Monday until Friday, but has called them off. These walkouts were suspended after it emerged that LNER would not be using the new and controversial minimum service law, which could have required at least 40 per cent of drivers to book on for duty, at the risk of heavy penalties for the union if they did not. The union has not confirmed that this was the reason, but some politicians are critical of what they see as state-owned LNER’s ‘failure’ to enforce the new law. Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has maintained that LNER managers had shown ‘rank cowardice’, telling the Daily Mail that ‘if the law is there you use it’. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said the decision to go ahead with the rolling strikes was ‘extremely disappointing’, continuing: ‘ASLEF drivers continue to be paid far above what the average person in the UK receives. Rail companies have made a fair and reasonable offer, and we would encourage them to step back from this action.’ ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: ’We have given the Government every opportunity to come to the table but it has now been a year since we had any contact from the Department for Transport. ‘It's clear they do not want to resolve this dispute. ‘Many of our members have not had a single penny increase to their pay for half a decade, during which time inflation has soared and, with it, the cost of living. ‘Train drivers didn't even ask for an increase during the Covid-19 pandemic when we worked throughout lockdown as key workers, risking our lives, to move goods around the country and to enable NHS and other workers to get to work. ‘The Tory government has now tried its old trick of changing the rules. When they couldn't win they brought in minimum service levels legislation. ‘But this new law, as we told officials during the consultation period, won't ease industrial strife. It will just make it worse. ’There is, frankly, no excuse for this nonsense. The Government and train operating companies should come to the table with a realistic offer so we can end this dispute and work together to ensure the future of our railways.’ Merseyrail is not involved in the dispute, and neither are the domestic operators in Scotland and Wales. Trains should run normally there, except that some cross-border services run by English operators could be disrupted, particularly on Friday, Saturday and Monday.

The new buildings at University station in Birmingham will be open to passengers from Sunday. The station on the Cross City line opened in 1978, and was designed for 500,000 passengers a year. Since then, Birmingham University has grown, while the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital was opened near the University on the same site in Edgbaston in 2010. The station, which has been managing with the original entrance, now handles as many as 3.5 million passengers a year. The 1978 building will remain in use as an exit. The new buildings are designed to cater for up to 7.2 million people each year, with wider entrances, stairways and exits, more open space, lifts to the platforms, a larger ticket office and other improvements. The main pavilion building also includes space for a café or convenience shop, which is due to be announced soon, and an NHS centre on the first floor. Sunday’s opening will follow a complex three-year construction programme during which the station remained open. The project included installing new bridges over the railway and the Birmingham to Worcester canal. The new station includes two buildings, or pavilions, one of which is built on the island between the railway and the canal, and for which materials had to be delivered by crane. The first stage of the development included longer and wider platforms, complete with new canopies, which were ready for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in the city. West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said: ‘Given the millions of people a year the University of Birmingham and QE Hospital collectively draw in, it’s been clear for some time that a new fit-for-purpose station was needed. So I’m pleased that finally, despite the sometimes less than ideal pace of progress, we can unveil the new station. ‘From the outset, the project team have involved partners at the University of Birmingham and the NHS in a collaborative approach that has ensured the building has been designed and delivered to meet their needs. ‘It’s good news that we now have a superb gateway for thousands of people arriving at University every day – no longer having to queue on stairs and funnel through what was a fairly tiny building on their way to lectures or hospital appointments. This is a high-quality facility that will serve local people in the months and years ahead.’

Talks are set to take place between transport secretary Mark Harper and the city Mayors of Birmingham and Manchester, when they will present a plan to rescue HS2 north of the West Midlands to Crewe and Manchester by introducing private investment. Phases 2A and 2B were axed by the Prime Minister last October, on the grounds that they were too expensive. He also scrapped the remaining link to the East Midlands, which was originally intended to continue to South and West Yorkshire but was then terminated at East Midlands Parkway. Work on the link from Old Oak Common in west London to Euston has also been ‘paused’ for two years, while the government investigates the possibility of private sector funding. Mayor of Birmingham Andy Street was speaking to the BBC when work began at Curzon Street yesterday, which will be the central Birmingham terminus for HS2. He said the proposals being laid before the transport secretary included a dedicated line between Birmingham and Manchester, but that it was ‘highly unlikely’ to be the same as the discarded HS2 design, and he did not rule out an upgrade to the existing West Coast Main Line rather than construction on a new alignment.  He added that the research had been approved by the Prime Minister but further details are unlikely to be revealed, at least until after next week’s meeting with the transport secretary. However, Mark Harper did say that he would ‘listen with an open mind’ to the Mayors’ proposals, which have been in preparation since December. The group carrying out this work is chaired by former Network Rail chief executive Sir David Higgins.

Storm Jocelyn has closed Scottish railways, and services are not expected to return until later today, after Network Rail has checked the state of the tracks. The second storm this week, with forecasts of high winds, caused the closure of the network from 19.00 last night, although trains which were underway at that time were allowed to complete their journeys. ScotRail customer operations director Phil Campbell said: ‘The heavy wind and ongoing rain hitting most parts of the country mean that it will not be safe for our customers and our staff. ’This is the second withdrawal of train services this week, and we know the impact this has on customers, but the safety of staff and passengers will always be our priority. ‘Our colleagues at Network Rail Scotland will again be working flat out to carry out safety checks, and assess what repairs are required to reopen the railway. ‘However, customers will be unable to travel early on Wednesday morning, as trains will not be able to operate until the infrastructure has been made safe. ‘We will update our website, mobile app, and social media feeds when we have more information, and customers should check for the latest updates before they attempt to travel.’ Services had already been disrupted by Storm Isha at the start of this week, and that storm had a ‘significant’ impact.

ASLEF has cancelled five days of drivers’ strikes on LNER from 5 to 9 February, apparently because LNER has said it will not be applying the new law which enforces minimum service levels during industrial action. Rail minister Huw Merriman had said the government hoped the law would be used, but that it was ‘a matter for the employers’. State-owned LNER said: ‘We welcome news that the threat of extended disruption to our services has been lifted. ‘We encourage ASLEF to work with us to find a way to end this long running dispute which only damages the rail industry.’ Walkouts by ASLEF which had already been called at different English operators from day to day between 30 January and 5 February in its dispute over pay will still be going ahead. As part of this series of walkouts, there will be a one-day strike by ASLEF drivers at LNER on 2 February, while an overtime ban will also apply at all the affected operators from 29 January until 6 February, which could cause some disruption if drivers are not available for shifts as a result.

High winds have caused all ScotRail trains to be cancelled, while many services south of the border are also late or cannot run because of damage caused by Storm Isha. ScotRail withdrew all its services at 19.00 last night, and warned that trains cannot run today until Network Rail can check the condition of each section of line. Train operators were expecting winds of up to 130km/h (80mph). Last night, ScotRail customer operations director Phil Campbell said: ‘“The heavy wind and ongoing rain hitting most parts of the country mean that it will not be safe for our customers and our staff, and all ScotRail train services will be suspended. ‘We know the impact that the withdrawal of train services will have on customers, but our first priority is always to ensure the safety of staff and passengers – and this is a necessary step to ensure everyone’s safety during the severe weather. ‘Our colleagues at Network Rail Scotland will be working flat out through the night and into the morning to carry out safety checks, and assess what repairs are required to reopen the railway. ‘However, customers will be unable to travel early Monday morning, as trains will not be able to operate until the infrastructure has been made safe. ‘We will update our website, mobile app, and social media feeds when we have more information, and customers should check for the latest updates before they attempt to travel.’ Further south, operators also warned of disruption. On Great Western Railway, trains on the Exeter to Barnstable branch in Devon were cancelled yesterday afternoon and evening because a bridge had been damaged near Eggesford, but it’s not known if the damage was caused by the weather. However, the Okehampton branch was blocked by a fallen tree, and again there were no trains to or from Exeter. Meanwhile, there were speed restrictions in force on many other routes, while Northern reported flooding between Skipton and Lancaster and TransPennine Express said delays and cancellations were likely north of Preston, affecting trains to Glasgow and Edinburgh, because there was ‘significant disruption on the West Coast Main Line’. TPE urged its passengers not to try to travel on its services to Scotland last night or today. Avanti West Coast cancelled later Sunday departures from London Euston after 18.15, and LNER advised its passengers not to travel. Last night’s Caledonian Sleepers were all cancelled, and South Western Railway said services on the West of England line would be reduced.

Fares frozen Fares on Transport for London will be unchanged this year, although regulated National Rail fares are due to rise by 4.9 per cent in March. Mayor Sadiq Khan is proposing £123 million of additional funding to TfL as part of the GLA budget. London TravelWatch CEO Michael Roberts has welcomed the news. ‘London’s public transport services are among some of the most expensive in the world, so the fares freeze will bring some welcome relief to hard-pressed passengers,’ he said. Safeguarding scrapped Transport secretary Mark Harper has announced that land which had been safeguarded for the cancelled section of HS2 to Crewe and Manchester will no longer be protected from development. However, he has been unable to halt purchases of land and buildings which were already under way when the cancellation was announced last October. HS2 Ltd executive chair Sir Jon Thompson told the Commons Transport Committee on 10 January that ‘some people still want to sell. We are obliged under the compulsory purchase powers, in my understanding.’ Hitachi strike Rolling stock engineers and maintenance workers employed by Hitachi at Great Western Railway and LNER are set to strike from 27 January to 1 February in a dispute over pay. The action by members of the RMT and Unite could disrupt services if faulty Intercity Express trains are held in depots. Extra Lumo service FirstGroup’s open access operator Lumo has submitted proposals for an extra daily return journey between Newcastle and London. The extra trip, which would leave Newcastle early in the day and be balanced by an evening departure from London King’s Cross, has been proposed as part of the East Coast Main Line timetable review. Lumo was launched in October 2021 and currently runs five return services a day between London, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

ASLEF has called another five days of 24-hour strikes on LNER from 5 to 9 February, in what could be the first direct challenge to the new minimum service levels law, which requires a set percentage of staff to continue working during strikes. LNER is one of four English operators who are owned by the state, after previous contracts with the private sector were either cancelled or not re-awarded when they expired. ASLEF has already called rolling strikes for a week from 30 January, which will affect most operators in England for one day. As well as the new LNER walkouts in early February, ASLEF drivers will also refuse to work any non-contractual overtime from 7 to 10 February. Reports that LNER would impose minimum service levels for the first time, although not confirmed, may have caused the latest walkouts. ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘We have given LNER management – and their government counterparts who hold the purse strings – every opportunity to come to the table and they have so far made no realistic offer to our members. ‘We have not heard from the transport secretary since December 2022, or from the train operating companies since April 2023. It's time for them to come to the table and work with us to resolve this dispute so we can all move forward and get our railway back on track.’ The Guardian has quoted a ‘government source’ as saying: ‘The train companies lobbied us for this ahead of the 2019 manifesto and they’ve got what they wanted so we would very much hope that they would use those powers. We aren’t going to grandstand and publicly urge them to do it but we quietly expect them to do so.’

A report by the consumer organisation Which? says that ticket vending machines are charging passengers more than they should for some journeys, and that some cheaper fares are hard to find or even not available. Which? said three out of four fares purchased online were cheaper, and that travel on the same day cost an average of 52 per cent more from machines. It has published the figures after sending ‘mystery’ shoppers to 15 stations. It quoted the example of a journey from Holmes Chapel in Cheshire to London, which was £66 if bought from a machine but only £25 from a third-party retailer, while a journey from Northampton to Cardiff cost £107 from a machine but £43 online. The editor of Which? Travel magazine Rory Boland said: ‘Huge numbers of us are potentially paying significantly more than we need to when we commute to work or visit friends and family. Significant numbers of elderly people don't have internet access at all, leaving them with little choice but to run the gauntlet of ticket machines which either don't offer the best prices, or make it difficult to find the appropriate fares.’ Explanations for the differences include the fact that some machines do not offer Advance fares, make split ticketing difficult to achieve by not offering fares from any other station, or simply make off-peak fares less obvious. Mr Boland added: ‘The price differences we found between booking online and using station ticket machines were simply astounding. Wherever possible we'd recommend booking train tickets online for the cheapest options, but that won't be possible for everyone.’ The Rail Delivery Group said: ‘Since the industry set out the case for fares reform in 2019, there has been some good progress, but more can be done. ‘The introduction of single-leg pricing and expansion of pay-as-you-go contactless fares are both important changes making fares easier and simpler for customers. ‘We will continue to work with government and industry stakeholders to achieve further reforms.’ Ticket machines have been criticised before, on the grounds that there is no standard screen and that the models vary, according to the operator which installed them. It is only a few months since the government tried to put ticket machines at the front of retailing, by urging the train operators to close nearly all ticket offices at English stations, but some 750,000 objections forced the operators to abandon the idea, while earlier this week LNER, which is owned by the government, announced that it was reducing the number of fares to three main types, and that only Anytime fares, which are by far the most expensive, would be available without booking in advance. Transport Focus chief executive Alex Robertson said: ‘The ticket office consultation highlighted passengers’ concerns about the difficulty of using ticket machines and the range of tickets available on them. It’s important that train operators consider this passenger feedback when looking at future improvements to ticket machines. ‘For all passengers to have confidence that they are getting the best deal, ticket machines need to be easier to use and have the best value fare available at the time of purchase.’

An internal presentation to Avanti West Coast managers which boasted ‘Roll up, roll up, get your free money here!’, when referring to payments from the government, has been followed by an apology from the operator.   Avanti, which is owned by British FirstGroup and Italian Trenitalia, has been under fire because of poor performance, including cancellations which it has blamed on a shortage of drivers.   One slide used in the presentation, which was leaked to Novara Media, explains how Avanti qualifies for performance-related bonuses, even if it scores seven, eight or nine out of ten for ‘compliance’. It continues: ‘And here's the fantastic thing! – if we achieve those figures, they pay us some more money – which is ours to keep – in the form of a performance-based fee!! Sounds too good to be true?! Well on this occasion – it isn't – it's the absolute truth!’.   It was reported that the presentation had been seen by managing director Andy Mellors and other executives, but Avanti said they had not presented the ‘free money’ slides.   Avanti also said it was an isolated incident and did not represent the company’s views. It continued: ‘These slides were an attempt to explain to some of our colleagues how the Service Quality Regime works, but the language used was regrettable.   ‘The Service Quality Regime is a robust and independent audit which we take very seriously. It has been demonstrated to hold us to account to drive up standards as we strive to continually improve our customer service.’   AWC was given a new National Rail Contract on 19 September last year, which started on 15 October. This replaced the previous short term contract which had been awarded in March 2023 after Avanti West Coast had been affected by performance problems and high cancellation figures. It was the second short-term contract to be allowed while Avanti recovered. The contract will run for at least three years until 18 October 2026 and possibly up to nine.   RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘Avanti is one of the worst rail companies in terms of performance and how it treats staff. For senior management to produce a PowerPoint slide bragging about the government paying them public money is a disgrace.   ‘The government has the mandate over Avanti and should never have given them a long-term nine-year contract award. The fact the company feels emboldened to boast that they get “free money” is down to the ridiculous system of rail ownership in this country. Ultimately, profit-driven companies who receive huge public subsidies have failed to deliver for railway workers and passengers alike.’   Labour shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh was also critical, saying: ‘This failing operator is taking passengers and taxpayers for fools, while complacent ministers reward them for their failure.   ‘Given Avanti West Coast has been propped up with a taxpayer funded bailout of hundreds of millions, these sickening comments are a slap in the face.   ‘Ministers need to explain how their performance monitoring regime is so lax that one of the worst performing operators on the network can joke about taking free money from hard-pressed taxpayers.   ’And after years of soaring delays and cancellations they need to explain when precisely they will stand up for passengers and strip Avanti of their contract.’