Train drivers and other railway workers are to stage a fresh wave of strikes as part of a long-running dispute.

Members of the train drivers’ union Aslef will walk out at 12 train companies, including Northern and Avanti West Coast which operate across Bolton and Greater Manchester, on September 15.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) also announced that its members at nine train operating companies as well as Network Rail (NR) will walk out from midday on September 26.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “We regret that, once again, passengers are going to be inconvenienced, because we don’t want to go on strike.

"Withdrawing our labour, although a fundamental human right, is always a last resort for a trade union, but the train companies have forced our hand.

“They want train drivers to take a real-terms pay cut, to work just as hard this year as last, but for 10 per cent less.

“Because inflation is now in double figures and heading higher, much higher, according to some forecasts, and yet the train companies have offered us nothing.

“And this for train drivers who kept Britain moving, key workers and goods around the country, throughout the pandemic and who have not had an increase in salary since 2019.

“We want the companies, which are making big profits, and paying their chief executives enormous salaries and bonuses, to make a proper pay offer to help our members keep up with the increase in the cost of living.

“That’s why we are calling on the companies today to do the right thing, the decent thing, and come back to the negotiating table with an offer our members can accept.”

Aslef members at Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; CrossCountry; Greater Anglia; Great Western Railway; Hull Trains; LNER; London Overground; Northern Trains; Southeastern; TransPennine Express; and West Midlands Trains will strike on September 15.

Drivers have already walked out for 24 hours on July 30 and August 13.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “For the ninth time this summer, union leaders are choosing self-defeating strike action over constructive talks, not only disrupting the lives of millions who rely on these services but jeopardising the future of the railways and their own members’ livelihoods.

“These reforms deliver the modernisations our rail network urgently needs, are essential to the future of rail, and will happen; strikes will not change this.”