RAIL passengers in the West Midlands are set to be hit by more industrial action in the new year as people return to work following the Christmas break.
Trade union Aslef, which represents train drivers, has announced a single day of action on Thursday January 5 among its members at 15 different rail operators in the long-running dispute over pay.
This includes Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry and West Midlands Trains which together run services from Birmingham to destinations across the West and East Midlands, Birmingham Airport, London, North West and elsewhere.
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This latest industrial action by Aslef compounds previously announced strikes by the RMT union, set to take place on January 3 and 4 and January 6 and 7 and affecting staff at Network Rail and 14 train operators.
The two combined mean services into and out of Birmingham and across the wider West Midlands are set to be crippled for the entire week following the New Year's Day bank holiday.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: "We don't want to go on strike but the companies have pushed us into this place. They have not offered our members at these companies a penny and these are people who have not had an increase since April 2019.
"That means they expect train drivers at these companies to take a real-terms pay cut, to work just as hard for considerably less, when inflation is running at north of 14 per cent.
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"The train companies say their hands have been tied by the Government while the Government, which does not employ us, says it's up to the companies to negotiate with us. We are always happy to negotiate - we never refuse to sit down at the table and talk - but these companies have offered us nothing and that is unacceptable."
Aslef had to ballot its members again because a mandate under the law is only valid for six months and said its members voted overwhelmingly again to take strike action by returning a 93 per cent 'Yes' vote.
The other train operators affected by the Aslef strike on January 5 are East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, London North Eastern Railway, Northern Trains, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway (depot drivers only), SWR Island Line and TransPennine Express.
Aslef previously held five one-day strikes during 2022, including most recently on November 26, and has already agreed pay deals with 12 other train operators including Transport for Wales which runs services from International and New Street to Wolverhampton, Shropshire and stations across Mid and North Wales.