Six-day strike by drivers on Southern Railway from Monday cut to three days – but there’s more walkouts to come

A six-day driver strike set to cause travel misery for hundreds of thousands of Southern Rail commuters from Monday has been cut to three days - but there's more walkouts to come.

Just hours after union Aslef cut short industrial action next week it announced that further strikes were planned for January 24, 25 and 27.

Months of strikes by staff on the troubled operator have caused travel misery for commuters.

Southern Rail has told commuters not to travel during next week's industrial action, as a dispute over the role of guards continues.

All of the troubled operator's 2,284 daily services had been expected to grind to a halt from Monday.

Members of Aslef were due to walk out from Monday, which would have halted services for the entire week.

But, the union today announced that strikes will only be held on January 10, 11 and 13.

The industrial action comes just one week after a 72-hour walk out over the New Year period.

General secretary Mick Whelan said the move did not mean the union was rolling back and warned of further strike action.

He said the union's executive will meet later this month and there is a "likelihood" more strikes will be called.

A Southern spokesman said: "This is a cynical ploy to minimise the impact on Aslef's drivers' pay packets and maximise misery, disruption and hardship for passengers.

"Aslef's move shows pure contempt for the travelling public and it still causes massive disruption over next week.

"These strikes are pointless and they should call the whole thing off and let common sense prevail."

The union has reduced next week's action because of concerns from the public about the impact of a week-long stoppage.

Aslef members are currently banning overtime which is leading to services being cancelled or delayed every day.

Today Southern Rail faced further embarrassment as it was revealed it had failed a Government terror test after workers failed to realise a fake bomb had been planted on a train.

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