No Northern trains on 9 May due to latest ASLEF strike

Travel advice calendar - May 2024 strikes

There will be no Northern services across the North of England next Thursday (9 May), due to the latest industrial action by ASLEF.

The union, which largely represents train drivers, has called multiple strikes on different days at train operators across the country as the long-running dispute over pay continues.

ASLEF says train drivers have not had an increase in salary for five years since their last pay deals expired in 2019. The union first balloted for industrial action in June 2022.

ASLEF train drivers will walk out in another series of one-day strikes, coupled with a six-day overtime ban, in a long-running dispute over pay. Members will also refuse to work non-contractual overtime from Monday 6 to Saturday 11 May.

As such, Northern customers connecting onto services with other train operators are advised to check before they travel for all journeys between Monday 6 and Saturday 11 May.

During that period (6-11 May), Northern says its services are likely to be busier than usual as people take alternative routes to avoid strikes elsewhere.

Tricia Williams, chief operating officer for Northern, said: “Unfortunately, the action by ASLEF on Thursday 9 May will see our network grind to a halt.

“On the days when strikes are taking place with other train operators, we will do everything we can to keep our services moving and absorb those extra passengers trying to travel across the region.

“We can only apologise, once again, for the disruption this action by ASLEF will cause to people in the North of England.”

ASLEF’s general secretary Mick Whelan said: “It is now a year since we sat in a room with the train companies – and a year since we rejected the risible offer they made and which they admitted, privately, was designed to be rejected.

“Our pay deals at these companies ran out in 2019. Train drivers at these TOCs [train operating companies] have not had an increase in salary for five years. That is completely wrong. The employers – and the government – think we are going to give up and run away.

“They're wrong. In the words of Tom Petty, we won’t back down.”

For more information about the strike, visit: www.northernrailway.co.uk/travel/strikes.