Southeastern Railway will not run any trains today due to a long-running dispute over pay.

Members of the Aslef union at South Western Railway, Southern, Southeastern, Gatwick Express and the Isle of Wight’s Island Line will walk out for 24 hours in the latest in a series of stoppages this week which are causing travel chaos.

On Wednesday, December 6, there will be no service on any Southeastern trains.

Southeastern Railway asks that passengers check before they travel and they have apologised for any inconvenience caused to passengers throughout the strike period.

A Southeastern spokesperson said: “A rolling programme of strike action by ASLEF at other train operators, which will affect their services, is also taking place on the following dates:

  • Saturday 2 December – East Midlands Railway and LNER
  • Sunday 3 December – Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, Great Northern, Thameslink and West Midlands Railway
  • Tuesday 5 December – C2C and Greater Anglia
  • Wednesday 6 December – Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, SWR main line, SWR depot drivers and Island Line
  • Thursday 7 December – Cross Country and GWR
  • Friday 8 December – Northern and TransPennine Express.

“Travel advice for Wednesday 6 December:

  • “We will be no Southeastern services running on the rail network and we are unable to provide replacement buses. For alternative transport options visit traveline.
  • “We will be running our normal timetable on Tuesday 5 and Thursday 7 December, including in the early morning.
  • “Journey planners for our timetable on Wednesday 6 December are up to date.”

Southeastern Railway has said that it is unable to provide rail replacement buses.

From Friday, December 1 through to Saturday, December 9 ASLEF has put in place an overtime ban, but a full service is still expected to run on these days – with the exception of Wednesday, December 6.

Aslef says its members are determined to continue taking industrial action until they receive an improved pay offer on one made earlier this year of 8% over two years.

Train operators and the Government are urging Aslef to put the offer to a ballot, but the union points out that its members have regularly voted to continue taking strike action.

General secretary Mick Whelan said the message he is receiving is that train drivers are solidly behind the campaign and want to go “further and faster” to try to break the deadlock.

South Western Railway said an “extremely limited” service will operate on a small number of lines, between 7am and 7pm on Wednesday, with most of the network closed.

Services will only run on routes including London Waterloo to Basingstoke, Woking, Guildford and Feltham, and Basingstoke to Salisbury.

There will be no services to stations including Bournemouth, Exeter, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, Staines, Windsor and Yeovil, or on the Island Line.

The usual non-stop Gatwick Express service between London Victoria, Gatwick Airport and Brighton will not operate.

A limited Southern shuttle service will run, calling at Gatwick Airport and London Victoria only. No other Southern services will be running on Wednesday.

Strikes will be held at CrossCountry and Great Western Railway on Thursday and on TransPennine and Northern Trains on Friday.