Walkout Wednesday: The London bus and train services affected by this week’s strikes
Hundreds of thousands of workers will go on strike in separate disputes over pay, jobs and conditions in what will be the biggest day of industrial action in more than a decade.
Teachers, university lecturers, train drivers, civil servants, bus drivers and security guards in seven trade unions will stop work on the same day.
Train strikes – who is affected?
There are two strikes this week as Aslef workers walk out after rejecting another pay offer.
Aslef ‘s London Underground workers will also strike on Saturday February 4 and Saturday February 11.
Train drivers in Aslef and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are embroiled in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
A recent offer of a four per cent pay rise for last year and another four per cent this year was rejected, with the unions arguing that conditions attached to the prosed deal, such as compulsory Sunday working, were never going to be accepted.
Aslef argues that more train drivers should be employed, but claims rail operators find it cheaper to pay staff overtime to work on Sundays.
Services will be severely affected on Wednesday, and again on Friday during a second strike, with some areas having no trains at all and those that do run will start later and finish earlier than usual.
No talks are planned with the drivers’ unions despite hopes of progress in other disputes involving rail unions.
Train lines affected by this week’s strike action
There will be two waves of rail strikes causing disruption in February, one affecting National Rail and the other affecting the Bakerloo Line. National Rail staff, represented by Aslef and RMT, will strike on the 1 and 3 February.
National Rail
- 1 February
- 3 February
TFL – Bakerloo Line
- 4 February
- 11 February
Zero services will run from most national train companies this Wednesday and Friday including:
- Avanti West Coast
- Chiltern Railways
- CrossCountry
- East Midlands Railway
- Gatwick Express; Great Northern
- Heathrow Express
- Island Line
- London Northwestern Railway
- Northern; Southeastern
- Southern; Thameslink
- TransPennine Express
- West Midlands Railway.
The following train companies will be running an amended service:
- Greater Anglia will run one train per hour to London Liverpool Street from Norwich, Colchester, Cambridge and Southend Victoria.
- Great Western Railway will operate a service between 7:30 and 19:30 on several major routes, including between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads)
- Bakerloo Line staff, represented by Aslef, will strike on the 4 and 11 February. TFL has said that service will be disrupted on the line.
- The Elizabeth Line is subject to cancellation or schedule changes at short or zero notice until 28 February.
London buses – who is on strike this week?
Around 1,900 members of Unite employed as bus drivers by Abellio in London will walk out on February 1, 2 and 3.
Unite said the decision to go ahead with the strikes follows the rejection of two pay offers.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Abellio is an incredibly wealthy company, whose success is based on the hard graft of its workers.
“It can fully afford to make a fair pay offer which meets our members’ expectations, but it has failed to do so.”
London bus services affected by the strike
Abellio bus drivers represented by Unite will strike for three days and the strike will affect around 70 routes, mainly around South and West London.
These include:
- Day routes: 3, 27, 45, 63, 68, 109, 130, 156, 195, 196, 201, 207, 267, 270, 278, 315, 322, 350, 367, 381, 407, 415, 427, 433, 464, 482, 490, 969, C10, E5, E7, E10, E11, H20, H25, H28, H26, P5, P13, R68, R70, S4, U5, U7, U9 ( Route 481 will run, but only from 7:30 to 8:00 and 15:00 to 16:00 on weekdays).
- 24-hour routes: 24, 111, 159, 285, 344, 345
- Night routes: N3, N27, N63, N68, N109, N207, N381
- School routes: 671
Who else is on strike this month?
Teachers in England and Wales, who are members of the National Education Union (NEU), will strike, with more than 23,000 schools expected to be affected.
The Department for Education has offered a 5 per cent pay rise to most teachers for the current school year, but the NEU is demanding a fully funded above-inflation pay rise for teachers.
Support staff in Wales, who are members of the NEU, will also take part in the action.
Teacher members of the NEU in sixth form colleges in England, who have already been balloted and taken strike action in recent months, will join the walkouts in a separate but linked dispute.
School leaders in the NAHT Cymru union will also hold industrial action short of a strike – which includes abstaining from arranging cover for those taking part in any industrial action – from February 1.
On Wednesday, teacher members of the EIS union – Scotland’s biggest teaching union – will take action in Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen as part of an ongoing dispute over pay.
Unprecedented strike action will hit 150 UK universities throughout February and March because of strikes by up to 70,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU).
The long-running dispute is over pay, working conditions and pensions.
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), representing 144 employers, said it has made a “full and final pay offer” of between 8% and 5%, which the union described as a marginal improvement.
The employers said the offer prioritises the disproportionate effect of high inflation falling on the lower paid, with a minimum of 5% for all other members of staff.
This offer was described as the highest uplift in nearly 20 years.
The intention is for between 3.2% and 2% to be paid from February 1, with the remaining amount from August, as is the usual timetable.
– Civil Service
Up to 100,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will strike in another long-running dispute, over pay, jobs and conditions.
Those taking part work for government departments, the Border Force, museums and other government agencies.
The PCS is seeking a pay rise of 10% after the government paid 2%, which the union complained was well below the soaring rate of inflation.
The union also fears huge job losses and cuts to redundancy terms for those affected.
– Security Guards
Outsourced security guards at UCL, represented by the IWGB, will also be on strike, demanding a pay rate of £15 an hour, union recognition and an end to outsourcing of services.
Wednesday will see the the biggest day of action since 2011 when well over one million public sector workers staged a one-day strike in a dispute over pensions.
As well as more strikes on Friday by train drivers, London Underground Bakerloo Line workers will walk out on Saturday, while ambulance workers and nurses will launch a fresh wave of industrial action across England and Wales from February 6.