South West Trains are facing industrial action in the form of strikes due to Aslef members voting to reject a 4.5% pay increase. The strike action is planned for four days: 31 March, 1 April, 2 April and 3 April. South West Trains say they have met with the union informally today in an effort to avoid the action.

The company is planning to run a limited service and use replacement bus services for other services where possible. In a statement on its website the company’s Managing Director, Stewart Palmer, said:

“We regret the significant disruption this will cause to our passengers and we reassure them that we will do everything we can to avoid this strike taking place However if they do go ahead we will pull out all the stops to run as many trains and buses as we can.

“We are very disappointed that ASLEF has taken this decision as we believe that this is a very good offer in the current economic climate.”

The strike action appears to be unconfirmed at this time with one article reporting that Aslef have actually denied wanting to go on strike, although they have held an industrial action ballot and sent a notification of industrial action letter to South West Trains.

The company also plans to use buses from its national bus network from its sister network.

•  South West Trains

National Rail reports of proposed industrial action by ASLEF on London Midland services on 28 and 29 February 2008.

Industrial action has not been confirmed yet, but, if it does go ahead, the following services are expected to be affected:

• London Euston – Northampton
• Bletchley – Bedford
• Watford Junction – St. Alban’s Abbey

London Midland services around Birmingham and the West Midlands are currently not expected to be affected.

The industrial action was proposed by ASLEF and shall involve the 178 members working at the Bletchley Depot after, according to ASLEF, talks have broken down with London Midland over pension issues, with some of the train drivers set to loose up to £2,700 annually off the pension they ought to be receiving.

London Midland announced it is disappointed about the strike intentions and continuously tries to resolve the pension issue which it took over from the previous TOC(s) when it was awarded the franchise in Novemeber 2007.

In the meantime, London Midland is looking at contingency plans for 28 and 29 February to reduce the impact of industrial action on its customers as much as possible.

ASLEF said that while London Midland confirms the figures in reduction of pension payments it is only willing to share the cost of correcting the pension fund. General Secretary Keith Norman said this could “only be the beginning” of the dispute.