Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder, and it's Tuesday the 31st of January, a month which seems to have been going on for about a year.

Well, as from the start of February, the nationwide rail strikes, which have been continuing since midsummer 2022 will get underway again.

On Wednesday the 1st and Friday the 3rd of February there will be strikes by train drivers,

almost all of them belonging to the Aslef Union, a few to the RMT, working for 15 train operators. Mostly it's going to affect the nation of

England, but there will be some effects in Scotland and Wales. As always, Northern Ireland is not

part of these disputes. And just as a reminder, well, there's three separate disputes going on.

There's the train drivers up against the train operators who are ultimately sanctioned by

the government, by ministers signing off pay deals. You've then got the RMT union representing

other grades, people who don't drive trains.

They're up against the train operators.

They're also up against network rail, the national infrastructure provider.

But tomorrow and Friday, it's only the train drivers.

And it's going to wipe out, I'm guessing, about 80% of trains across England

and, well, in fact, probably across Great Britain as a whole. Number of intercity train operators

say they're going to cancel all trains on Wednesday and Friday. That's Avanti on the West Coast. Cross

country, East Midlands Railway, Trans-Pennine Express.

Commuter services, well, they are going to be very hard hit.

GTR is canceling all its four brands, Gatwick Express, great northern, southern,

Thameslink, as well as that southeastern won't be running.

Neither will Chiltern Rail railways island line that's on

the isle white um normally that's a that survives the linked to companies of london northwestern

of west midlands trains and northern trains uh there are a good number of train operators

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