London trains strikes August 2023: Full list of industrial action dates and disruption details

Londoners face further travel disruption this August as train drivers enforce an overtime ban as part of their ongoing dispute over pay.

Last month saw 20,000 RMT members from 14 train companies walk out for three days, impacting holiday makers and fans travelling to the Ashes test.

London Underground workers from three different unions had planned to strike during the first week of the school holidays, but the action was cancelled.

When are the strikes in August?

Members of Aslef, the train drivers union, are continuing their overtime ban this month as the union says its members have not received a pay rise since 2019.

Train drivers from 15 different rail companies are currently in their fifth week-long overtime ban, with drivers refusing to work any extra hours from Monday August 7 to Saturday August 12.

National Rail warns passengers to expect “significant disruption” on strike days. Services are likely to be disrupted and start later on the day immediately after.

Which train companies are affected?

National Rail has warned that the following companies may not be able to run their full timetable.

• Chiltern Railways
• Gatwick Express (No service)
• Great Northern
• Southern
• South Western Railway and Island Line
• Thameslink

The following companies are expected to run their full timetables but they may experience short notice cancellations.

• Avanti West Coast
• CrossCountry
• East Midlands Railway
• Great Western Railway
• Greater Anglia
• London Northwestern Railway
• Northern
• TransPennine Express
• West Midlands Railway

National Rail has recommended that passengers:

• Use its Journey Planner. Passengers should check close to the time of each strike date.
• Use its Live Trains page for the most up-to-date information about arrivals and departures
• Plan ahead and check before you travel. This includes checking your entire journey, especially if you’re travelling on the first and last trains of strike days.

Why are Aslef members striking?

Aslef says its members are striking as the government has “refused” to sit down and talk to them and have not made a “fair and sensible” pay offer to train drivers.

The Rail Delivery Group offered a 4% pay rise in 2022 followed by another 4% rise in 2023, but general secretary Mick Whelan said the proposal “was clearly not designed to be accepted” as inflation is much higher, meaning the offer represents a pay cut in real terms.

“The proposal they made on April 26 – of 4% with a further rise dependent, in a naked land grab, on drivers giving up terms & conditions for which we have fought, and negotiated, for years – was not designed to be rejected,” he said.

"We have not heard a word from the employers since then – we haven’t had a meeting, or a phone call, a text message, nor an email – for the last three months, and we haven’t sat down with the government since January 6. That shows how little the companies and the government care about passengers and staff. They are happy to let this go on and on.

“But we are determined to get a proper increase – a fair pay rise – for men and women who haven’t had one for four years while inflation has been roaring away. Our members, perfectly reasonably, want to be able to buy what they could buy back in 2019.”

What do the train operators say?

An RDG spokesperson said: “More strike action is totally unnecessary and will only heap more pressure on an industry already facing an acute financial crisis.”

What is the government saying?

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said: “After a year of industrial action, passengers and rail workers alike are growing tired of union bosses playing politics with their lives.

“It’s high time the union leaders realised that strikes no longer have the impact they once did and are simply driving people away from the railway.”