Southern Rail will restore a full train service for long-suffering commuters from Tuesday after a drivers’ union suspended planned industrial action.
Aslef members had been due to strike for three days next week, causing more chaos to hundreds of thousands of commuters who have already endured weeks of disruption. The union called off the strikes before fresh talks between the two sides aimed at resolving the dispute over driver-only trains. A ban on drivers’ overtime was also lifted.
While strikes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday have been called off, separate action by members of the RMT union will take place on Monday. The RMT has, however, requested to join the peace talks after initially being excluded.
Southern said that it could not reintroduce a full timetable before next week because work rosters were issued before Aslef called off the strikes.
The suspension was heralded as a significant development by Southern’s parent company, Govia Thameslink. “Efforts now will be on productive talks with the union and trying to find a solution and a way forward,” it said.
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The talks between Aslef and Southern mark a shift in tone between the sides and have approval from the Department for Transport. Attempts to agree a deal will be jointly chaired by Andy Meadows, group HR director at the rail franchise Abellio, and Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC.
Pressure is now being heaped on the RMT to suspend its strike action on Monday. Angie Doll, Southern’s passenger services director, said: “The RMT should now recognise that their industrial action is wholly futile. They should stop the strikes, get back round the table with us and move forward together with us.”
Southern said that it would run more than 70 per cent of its trains on Monday.
A spokesman for Aslef said that industrial action could not be reinstated next week if the talks failed.