Peace breaks out on British trains

Not quite fully sorted yet Nigel I think. I assume the issue with Northern and TPE around overtime and particularly Sunday working is still outstanding. And I think Scoteail staff are ballotting on action.

So the unions give the Labour Party money. Labour Party win the election and give the drivers a pay rise with no strings attached.

I presume we are going to continue with all this nonsense about Sundays being outside the working week and volunteers being sought to work the trains on double money? Have some event on like a soccer match and they don't volunteer and services get pulled. No doubt the public & taxpayers will have to pay more in fares and subsidies.

I note that Transport for Wales does include Sundays as part of the normal working week.

Scotrail and Caledonian Sleeper staff have both voted for industrial action. Talks are under way to avoid both disputes.

And the Northern overtime ban is very much ongoing, affecting both weekday and Sunday services.

so nobody wants a good news story after moaning about strikes for 2 years then.

Haha you can't win it seems Nigel :)

It was always going to be a high priority of a new Labour government to sort it out, come hell or high water. We talked about it on here as soon as an election was announced.

It's certainly less embarrassing in terms of welcoming travellers to the UK only to be met with delays and cancellations because of industrial action.

More power to the elbow of the rail unions. It gives hope to other working people that there's things that are still possible in this day and age with the proper organisation and representation.

It’s good to get this resolved.

Functioning public transport benefits everybody, not just the people who use it regularly.

@Nigel…. I want to hear the good news. Thank you.

I'm glad to hear the good news too! Returning to London next summer and browsing through my copy of The Home Counties from London by Train and planning walks. :-)

Well that didn't last long. ASLEF has announed three months of strikes on LNER trains. Not good for those wanting to travel on those routes. Give the unions what they want and still they want more. Oh well, at least our pensioners will be warm this winter (sarc).

The new LNER strikes are every Saturday and Sunday from 31 August to 10 November- the effects are to be determined as the news is under one hour old at the time of writing- probably a basic (ie- reduced frequency and reduced hours of operating) service on the core London to Edinburgh and London to Leeds routes only, if it goes ahead. No service north of Edinburgh or on the branches.

I was wondering how long this would last. These days when I return to England and plan a vacation by train, I always think about a contingency plan in case the rail workers are on strike, there is maintenance at weekends, or trains are just late. For those of us who are not as familiar with the different company lines, can someone tell us the LNER routes likely impacted? I will be back in England in September. How would we get notified of a cancellation? Also, could people still buy tickets for certain routes without knowing about the potential strike action? Of course, further negotiations could perhaps change things, but what a mess.

can someone tell us the LNER routes likely impacted? I will be back in England in September. How would we get notified of a cancellation? Also, could people still buy tickets for certain routes without knowing about the potential strike action?

LNER run from London to Edinburgh up the East Coast through York and London to Leeds. Also the odd Leeds to Edinburgh direct service.

From Leeds a few trains extend to Skipton (1 a day) and Harrogate (change at Leeds for the far more frequent Northern Service), from Edinburgh one train a day extends to Glasgow Central, one to Inverness and one every two hours or so to Aberdeen (in all these cases use the more frequent Scotrail service assuming they don't go on one of their currently threatened strikes).
Several trains a day run from London to Lincoln, one a day to Sunderland (an extension of a Newcastle train) and one to Hull.

In all those cases use the main services run by various other operators.

LNER will probably withdraw tickets for sale for the at threat days shortly until and unless this is resolved.

All the extension services will be cancelled if the action goes ahead. The only routes likely to run are Edinburgh to London and Leeds to London. The trains from London which terminate at York are unlikely to run. Probably one train every hour or two hours, and probably only 7am to 6pm or thereabouts.

That is all based on previous disputes. As this is ASLEF (drivers) not RMT (guards) there is a small chance that no effective service can be offered at all. Time will tell.

If you have booked direct with LNER they will or should e-mail and there is a separate thread on this forum which will be kept up to date.