Train drivers employed by Avanti West Coast will receive an increase in their overtime shift fees to £600 as part of a deal with trade union Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef).
The trainline operator covers the west coast main line between London, Manchester and Glasgow.
The drivers will receive the payment on top of their standard four-day week pay, and the deal will be in place until 29 March 2025. Their previous deal involved a flat £125 payment, with an hourly rate paid on top, which could have totalled between £421 and £495 depending on whether a driver worked an eight or 10-hour shift.
Aslef has accepted the deal, bringing an end to a long-running dispute over overtime.
Avanti West Coast stated that it is in the process of introducing new Hitachi trains which involves 2,500 training days, with each driver away from passenger services for around two weeks at a time. The agreement means the training can be delivered without impacting service delivery.
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “We are pleased to reach a new agreement on rest-day working, as other operators have done. It will help ensure our services are more reliable and resilient over time for our customers, while ensuring we continue training our drivers on our brand-new trains. We’re grateful to partners at Aslef and the Department for Transport for working with us to finalise this agreement.”
Last week, Aslef announced a series of rolling one-day strikes in April, alongside a six-day overtime ban at 16 trainline operators. Members will strike at Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, and CrossCountry on Friday 5 April, at Chiltern, GWR, LNER, Northern, and TransPennine Trains on Saturday 6 April, and at c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway main line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line on Monday 8 April.
