TRAIN drivers at 16 rail companies - including Northern - are to stage a fresh series of strikes in their long-running pay dispute.

Members of Aslef will walk out on May 7, 8 and 9 at different operators and ban overtime for six days from May 6.

Drivers will strike on May 7 at c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express and South Western Railway.

On May 8 there will be strikes at Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway and West Midlands Trains.

Aslef members at Northern, LNER and TransPennine Express will strike on May 9.

Aslef said train drivers have not had an increase in salary for five years, since their last pay deals expired in 2019.

General secretary Mick Whelan said: "It is now a year since we sat in a room with the train companies and a year since we rejected the risible offer they made and which they admitted, privately, was designed to be rejected.

"We first balloted for industrial action in June 2022, after three years without a pay rise. 

"Our negotiating team met the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) on eight occasions – the last being on Wednesday April 26 last year.

"Since then train drivers have voted, again and again, to take action to get a pay rise.

"Drivers would not vote to strike if they thought an offer was acceptable."

Mr Whelan said the year-old offer of a four per cent pay rise followed by a second four per cent increase is "dead in the water".

A spokesman for the RDG said: "This wholly unnecessary strike action called by the Aslef leadership will sadly disrupt customers and businesses once again, while further damaging the railway at a time when taxpayers are continuing to contribute an extra £54million a week just to keep services running."

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "Aslef's leadership are acting like a broken record - calling for strike action time and time again while remaining the only rail union continuing to strike, as well as the only union refusing to put a fair and reasonable pay offer to its members for over a year.

"The Transport Secretary and rail minister have done their part to facilitate this pay offer - one which would take train drivers' salaries up to an average of £65,000 which is almost twice the average salary in the UK."