UPDATE: This action has been suspended pending further discussions.
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.