Train strikes today: Commuters face travel chaos as train drivers stage 24-hour walk out - full list services affected

Commuters are set to face travel chaos today (Wednesday 6 December) as more strikes will be held by train drivers in their long-running dispute over pay. Some of the busiest commuter rail routes in the country will have limited services or no trains at all due to the strikes.

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. 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. 

A landslip on the Exeter to London Waterloo line has seen its trains between Exeter and Yeovil  cancelled until next Monday 11 December. The landslip which occurred above the Crewkerne Tunnel has shut the line.

No other Southern services will be running on Wednesday. Southeastern said none of its trains will run - commuters have been warned that there will also be no replacement buses on Wednesday.

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.

Strikes will also be held at CrossCountry and Great Western Railway on Thursday and on TransPennine and Northern Trains on Friday. Aslef members are also refusing to work overtime this week as part of the dispute, which is also leading to cancellations and delays.