Rail services disrupted by strike

Thousands of rail passengers are facing travel disruption as train drivers on some of the busiest routes in the country go on strike.

Around 900 staff from South West Trains - all members of Aslef - have walked out for a 24-hour strike, which was sparked by a row over managers driving trains during previous industrial action.

SWT normally operates 1,700 services per day, carrying around 400,000 passengers. Most of the passengers - around 350,000 - travel in and out of London's Waterloo station.

SWT has advised passengers not to travel on their services, as there will be no trains running on many routes and only around one in ten trains on others.

However, Aslef dismissed SWT's claim to be running one train in ten as "wishful thinking" and claimed it was "propaganda".

Keith Norman, Aslef general secretary said that he was sorry that the public would suffer during the strike, but blamed a management who, he said: 'preferred a punch-up to a settlement". Mr Norman said: "I have been in London all weekend prepared to speak to the company, but they have been too busy making excuses to do anything positive. The union has shown its organising abilities today - but I'm sure the public would prefer us to be demonstrating our negotiating skills. Unfortunately, this would involve management coming to the table - which it is reluctant to do".

However, in a statement released ahead of the strike, SWT Managing Director Stewart Palmer said: "The unions claim we have breached an agreement only to use managers to drive trains in exceptional circumstances. We believe that a strike is an exceptional circumstance and that the prospect of leaving thousands of you stranded at stations and the subsequent overcrowding could have led to very real safety concerns.

"The unions seem determined to punish us for using every available resource to get our passengers where they wanted to go and to ensure the safe operation of the railway. What the unions call strike-breaking, we call customer service.

"They now want us to promise never again to use managers to drive trains during a strike. This is something we can never agree to. While we remain willing to discuss the local dispute behind this, our right to put our passengers first is non-negotiable. While unions may have the right to strike, we must have the right to do everything we can to continue to serve our passengers."

Aslef has two further strikes planned - on September 8 and 11 - unless the deadlock is broken.

Drivers on the Heathrow Express from Paddington in London to Heathrow Airport are also on strike today in a separate dispute.

(KMcA/SP)