A rail strike that threatened to cause two days of nightmare journeys for South West Trains passengers has been cancelled.

This morning the drivers' union Aslef reached a last-minute agreement with SWT and called off two 24-hour due tomorrow and on Monday.

"We are delighted that we will now be able to offer passengers a normal service on these dates," SWT said.

Over 900 staff members would have walked out, paralysing 80% of the services on the network that carries 400,000 passengers a day.

Prospects for passengers had looked grim until last night, when both Aslef and SWT were still refusing to back down.

An earlier strike in the same row, on August 29, forced many people to drive into work or to take the day off.

The network normally runs almost 1,700 trains on a weekday on 616 miles of track between London and the South West and South East. Destinations include Bristol, Plymouth, Weymouth and Brighton.

The row started as a local dispute at Waterloo over whether SWT should provide taxis for drivers on early and late shifts.

When the depot's drivers refused to work, SWT drafted in managers to drive trains. Aslef claimed the move breached an agreement that says managers will only drive trains in cases of health, safety or the possibility of civil unrest.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union has also asked its SWT drivers to join Aslef in the strikes.

This morning, Aslef said in a statement: "Following the meetings which have taken place this week, the discussions between Aslef and SWT has resulted in our differences being resolved.

"A mutual agreement has been reached on the issues that caused the industrial breakdown, therefore the strike action which was due to take place on 8 and 11 September has been cancelled."

  • In a separate dispute on the Heathrow Express service, two strikes scheduled for today and coming Monday were also suspended while drivers vote on an improved pay offer.