Rail chaos on Walkout Wednesday with no Gatwick Express in blow to holidaymakers – as thousands of train drivers stage yet another strike amid ongoing pay row

Striking train drivers plunged Britain’s rail lines into chaos today after the strike brought the Gatwick Express service to a standstill, affecting thousands of holidaymakers.

Aslef union members on the South Western Railway, Southern, South Eastern, Gatwick Express and Isle of Wight Line will stand down for 24 hours, the latest in a series of stoppages this week that are causing travel chaos.

Aslef says her members are determined to continue the strike until they receive an offer of a pay rise from the offer made earlier this year of 8% over two years.

Train operators and the government are calling on Aslef to put the proposal to a vote, but the union says its members have regularly voted to continue strikes.

Quiet Liverpool Street station amid rail strikes this week

Aslef union members on the South Western Railway, Southern, South Eastern, Gatwick Express and Isle of Wight Line will be out of the house for 24 hours.

General secretary Mick Whelan said the message he was getting was that train drivers were firmly behind the campaign and wanted to go “further and faster” to try to break the impasse.

South Western Railway said an “extremely limited” service would operate on a small number of lines between 7am and 7pm on Wednesday, with most of the network closed.

Services will only operate on routes including London Waterloo to Basingstoke, Woking, Guildford and Feltham, and Basingstoke to Salisbury.

Stations that will not be served include Bournemouth, Exeter, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, Staines, Windsor and Yeovil, as well as the Island Line.

The normal non-stop Gatwick Express service between London Victoria, Gatwick Airport and Brighton will not operate.

A strike sign at the Windsor and Eton Riverside railway station in Windsor.

There will be a limited number of flights across the south, calling only at Gatwick Airport and London Victoria Airport. No other southern services will operate Wednesday.

Southeastern said none of its trains will operate.

Strikes will take place at CrossCountry and Great Western Railway stations on Thursday, and on TransPennine and Northern Trains on Friday.

Aslef members are also refusing to work overtime this week as part of the dispute, which is also leading to cancellations and delays.