Rail strikes 2023: No Elizabeth line service through central London on Thursday as workers stage first walkout

There will be no service on the central section of the Elizabeth line today as workers are set to walkout for the first time.

TSSA members working in management roles are walking out in a dispute over pay and proposed changes to pensions.

While members of the RMT and Prospect Unions working for Rail for London Infrastructure (RfLI) on the project - previously known as Crossrail - will also take part in the action.

This is the first time the £20bn line, which opened last May, will have been directly hit by industrial action.

Transport for London (TfL) said there would be no trains all day between Paddington and Abbey Wood on Thursday January 12.

Services between Paddington, Heathrow and Reading on its western branch, and between Liverpool and Shenfield on its eastern branch, will be reduced, with the possibility of “short-notice alterations or cancellations”.

In the west, the line will be limited to two trains per hour from Paddington to Reading, two per hour from Paddington to Maidenhead and two per hour from Paddington to Heathrow Terminal 4. There will be no services to Terminal 5.

There will be eight trains an hour in and out of Liverpool Street station, with three more an hour at peak times.

TfL says it has made a two-year offer of a 4% pay increase for 2022 and 4.4% increase in 2023 and it encourages TSSA and Prospect to engage in further discussions

Howard Smith, TfL’s director of the Elizabeth line, said: “Strikes are bad news for everyone, and we urge the TSSA and Prospect to work with us and avoid the need for industrial action.

“These strikes will have a detrimental effect during a time where we are encouraging customers back on to trains into central London, in which the Elizabeth line has played a leading role.”

Talks were expected to take place on Monday at Acas but union sources said there was no precondition that the strike be called off before discussions could start.

The TSSA union, which represents safety-critical workers including traffic managers and incident response managers. says the affected workers are paid significantly less than equivalent colleagues across the network.

Workers have been offered a 4% pay rise, but argue this is "significantly less" than other transport staff have received, such as DLR staff, who received 9.25%.

The union has also pointed out that workers at MTR, which is the outsourced part of the Elizabeth line, received an 8.2% increase this year, and staff at London Overground have been offered 6.5%.

While a Prospect spokesperson said the current Elizabeth Line budget is underspent by £38m and that “there is money available to provide an increased pay offer.”