February 14th - Britain's busiest rail line to be hit by strikes this month and next
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mind the gap – between what train drivers on London's Elizabeth line have been offered, and what they believe they deserve. The employers have offered a 4.5% raise which would take their annual salary above £75,000, but the members of the train drivers' union, Aslef, have voted overwhelmingly to strike on four days in February and March. Are they pushing their luck?
This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder. It's Friday the 14th of February. |
| 0:07.7 | Yes, Valentine's Day and I hope it is going happily for you. I don't think there will be that many Valentine's cars from train operators arriving on the desk of Mick Whelan. |
| 0:21.6 | He is the highly effective General Secretary of the train drivers' union, Asleff. |
| 0:27.5 | And just yesterday, after I'd actually recorded the podcast from Kingscross Station, |
| 0:32.9 | he announced that drivers on the Elizabeth Line, where I am right now at Britain's busiest railway station, Liverpool Street Station, they are not happy and they want a pay rise that is bigger than the 4.5% that they have been offered. |
| 0:50.0 | He says that they're not getting the recognition that they deserve for making the line such a success. |
| 0:55.4 | Actually, just looking at it here, 10 minute gap after this train, which I'm just about to step aboard, |
| 1:00.7 | which suggests things aren't going quite as well as they might, whether that's anything to do with the drivers who knows. |
| 1:06.6 | Anyway, so they want some more money. |
| 1:08.5 | I salute the right of every trade union is to withdraw their labour |
| 1:13.9 | and to go on strike in pursuit of a pay claim. |
| 1:18.0 | But I just wonder if there are limits. |
| 1:21.8 | The train drivers have, under Mick Whelan's very good stewardship, |
| 1:25.9 | come up with extremely good pay rises. |
| 1:29.1 | On the Elizabeth line, |
| 1:30.4 | they have been offered a cash rise of £3,260 a year, |
| 1:36.0 | which would take their pay above £75,000. |
| 1:40.5 | That, they say, isn't enough. |
| 1:42.8 | They voted 19 to 1 in favour of a walkout. They want to have |
| 1:48.2 | a higher annual salary than £75,000. And Mitt Weyland says, despite our best efforts, MTR has decided |
| 1:57.6 | not to recognise the importance and the value of train drivers. MTR being the organisation |
| 2:04.2 | which runs the Elizabeth Line on behalf of Transport for London. I just wonder if maybe the public |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Independent, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Independent and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.