Train drivers will refuse to work overtime for a week – threatening disruption to services at the height of the summer holidays.

The action – part of a long-running dispute over pay – will begin from 31 July, the ASLEF union announced on Monday.

It will affect services across 15 train operating companies, and marks the fourth week-long ban on overtime since May.

“We don’t want to take this action. We don’t want people to be inconvenienced, but the blame lies with the train companies, and the government which stands behind them, which refuse to sit down and talk to us, and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years – since 2019 – while prices have soared in that time by more than 12%,” ASLEF’s general secretary Mick Whelan said.