Strike action
Strike action travel advice
Last updated 28 March 2024
Strike action by the ASLEF union is due to take place across our network on Monday 8 April, and across several other train operators between 5 and 8 April. Please see details below.
- Friday 5 April – Avanti West Coast, Cross Country, East Midlands Railway and West Midlands Trains.
- Saturday 6 April – Chiltern, GWR, LNER and Northern Trains.
- Monday 8 April – c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern/Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway (SWR) main line/depot drivers and SWR Island line.
ASLEF also announced an overtime ban from Thursday 4 April to Saturday 6 April, and from Monday 8 April to Tuesday 9 April. We expect to run our full service during this time, except for Monday 8 April, which is the strike day on our network.
Planned engineering work is taking place on our network over the weekend of 6 and 7 April. To find our more, visit our planned engineering work page.
Strike action by ASLEF on the London Underground is scheduled to take place on Monday 8 April and Saturday 4 May.
If previous strike action has affected your travel plans then visit our strike refund page for more information.
You can keep up-to-date here where we’ll post the latest information, follow us on X, or you can sign up to receive service updates on the planned strike action.
Monday 8 April
- Most of our routes and stations will be closed. There will be an extremely limited service where trains are running. Our advice to customers is do not travel.
- If you do travel, expect severe disruption, plan ahead and allow much more time for your journey.
- Trains that are running will be extremely busy, they start later and finish early.
- You may be unable to board trains at some stations, and we estimate that there could be queues for up to two hours due to the very limited service.
- Only 29 out of 165 Southeastern stations will be open. No rail replacement buses will serve stations that are closed.
- Below is our service availability map. Timetables will be published here shortly, and journey planners have been updated.
- For alternative transport options visit traveline.
Ticketing
- Customers with Advance, Anytime or Off-Peak tickets for travel between Friday 5 and Monday 8 April can use their tickets anytime between Thursday 4 and Wednesday 10 April. This only applies to tickets purchased before the strikes were announced. If the ticket is for a journey that also includes the London Underground, it will not be valid on London Underground services on an alternative date.
- You can claim a full refund or change of journey with no admin fee for your unused ticket (other than season ticket), if you decide not to travel because the train you intended to use is cancelled, delayed or rescheduled after you purchased your ticket.
- You can request a fee-free change of journey or cash refund for all ticket types (other than season ticket) if the train was cancelled or delayed or rescheduled from that in the published timetable of the day after you have purchased a ticket.
- If you can't make your outward journey because of strike action, you can have a refund on your outward and return ticket (other than season ticket) even if the latter is not affected by strike action. The same applies if your return journey is affected, but your outward journey is not.
- If you have an Advance ticket for a train that’s on a strike day, you can apply for a full refund with no admin fee. If you have two Advance tickets (an outbound and a return), to be used as a return journey, and either of the legs is on a strike day, you can claim a fee-free refund or change of journey for any unused legs / tickets.
- If you’re a Season ticket holder (Flexi, monthly or longer) you can use Delay Repay to claim a day of travel back if you can’t travel on strike days. For a full day back, you only need to make one claim per day of strike action, making sure to select the reason for delay as 'Industrial Action – did not travel'. For Flexi ticket holders, to receive Delay Repay you must have activated a pass for the day you're claiming.
- Weekly Season ticket holders cannot be compensated for strike dates announced at least two weeks beforehand, but you can claim Delay Repay if your train is delayed or cancelled on the day.
- When trains are running, if you travelled and were delayed for 15 minutes or more, you are entitled to Delay Repay compensation.