News and Media

Here you will find the lastest ASLEF news articles. Archived articles can be found in the News Archive section in the left hand navigation bar.

You can also find recent issues of the ASLEF Journal and other ASLEF publications in the Publications section.  

Rail chiefs are bankers, says union

3 Feb 2012Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF the train drivers’ union, said that the bonuses snatched by Network Rail bosses are ‘as unacceptable as those paid to bankers like Stephen Hester’.

Stop tinkering with fares says GS

27 Jan 2012Today’s news that three quarters of passengers are unhappy about the cost of their train tickets comes as no surprise says ASLEF’s general secretary Mick Whelan. ‘The only long term remedy is to make sure profits are reinvested in our industry to maintain and improve it. Instead we allow profits flow out to line the pockets of investors.

Driver on TV

25 Jan 2012Readers of the ASLEF Journal (and who wouldn’t be one?) may remember a feature we ran last December about Simon Davies, a Manchester Pendolino driver who had spent a fortnight driving freight traction through the bitterly cold Andes mountains for a TV programme called ‘The Toughest Place to be a Train Driver’.

Aslef backing for Greek protestors

24 Jan 2012Mick Whelan has written to trade unionists arrested in Greece for occupying a power company to prevent supplies to working people being cut off. Mick expressed ASLEF’s support for the actions of Nikos Photopoulos and other members of the GENOP-DEH union.

ORR revises fatigue guidance

23 Jan 2012The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has published new guidance on good practice in managing fatigue within the rail industry.

ASLEF to ballot Scots over demoted driver

18 Jan 2012ASLEF has given notice to Scotrail that it intends to ballot its 1,100 members working for the company seeking their support for industrial action because of disciplinary measures taken against a member who was absent from work for a single day.

Richard Fisher is new ASLEF organiser

18 Jan 2012Richard Fisher has been elected as the new organiser for ASLEF’s District No 6. He has taken over the vacancy caused by the election of his predecessor, Mick Whelan, to the position of General Secretary.

Network Rail to be prosecuted over Grayrigg

13 Jan 2012The Office of Rail Regulation is to prosecute Network Rail over the Cumbrian rail crash at Grayrigg in February 2007 which took the life of 84-year-old Glaswegian Margaret Masson and left 88 people injured.

ASLEF welcomes Ed Miliband’s rail fare pledge

11 Jan 2012In his speech on the economy yesterday Ed Miliband highlighted the Government’s unwillingness to tackle rail fare increases of as much as 11% this month with further increases of as much as 13% next year which will mean some commuters spending 20% of the income on season tickets (based on average salary levels).

Union welcome for High Speed Two

10 Jan 2012Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, has welcomed today’s decisions on High Speed Two.