Southern rail strike: Aslef three day drivers' strike starts today
Published: 00:01, 10 January 2017
There's yet more disruption for Southern rail passengers today as train union Aslef
start two three-day walkouts.
The train drivers' union strike will last for three days this week - today, tomorrow (January 11) and Friday, January 13.
Commuters can then expect further disturbance as driver strikes will also take place on Tuesday, January 24, Wednesday, January 25 and Friday, January 27.
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It comes after unions called a 24-hour strike on the London Underground, which ended at 6pm last night.
Meanwhile, Southern Rail has warned that overground services are expected to be severely disrupted every day until further notice as a result of the union's refusal for drivers to work overtime.
The Aslef strike action comes as part of their long-running dispute over driver-only trains.
Services at Ashford and Tonbridge will be affected.
The general secretary of Aslef, Mick Whelan, said: "We are taking a longer-term view of this trade dispute
"The company has not been prepared to move – it is simply going through the motions, turning up at ACAS...and telling us that it intends to impose DOO.
"We remain committed to a negotiated settlement, as was reached with ScotRail, but it is difficult to negotiate with people who are not prepared to be flexible.
"We still believe a deal can be done but we are, at the moment, a long way from that position.
"It is time for the company to come up with a genuine offer rather than carry on posturing."
Meanwhile, Southern Rail has announced it is organising 200 buses each day to provide road links for essential travel from nine Southern stations into nearby neighbouring train networks where they can connect into other train operators' services.
The fleet has been pulled from a wide range of bus and coach operators across the South East.
Angie Doll, Southern's Passenger Service Director, said: "There will be significant disruption and hardship next week caused by these pointless and unnecessary strikes.
"With this package of measures, we are putting in place a very limited number of alternative options to help people with essential travel needs get where they need to be.
"Unfortunately, there is no practical way we could replace 2,000-plus trains we run each day with buses, but what we are doing is providing transport to link some passengers into other operators' stations where services are running normally."
The train company has also suggested passenger sign up to either liftshare.com or carplus.org.uk, services which offer customers the chance to find/ offer a lift to work.
For more information or to see how your journey will be affected during this period, visit
southernrailway.com/your-journey
.
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Katie Davis