Trains have been brought to a standstill on some of the country’s busiest routes as drivers strike again in a long-running pay dispute.

Commuters traveling to London were among those suffering from travel pain on Monday morning.

Aslev members are on strike, the third in the past four days, paralyzing services, particularly in East Anglia and the south-east.

Today’s action affects c2c, Gatwick Express, Greater Anglia, Southeastern, Southern, South Western Railway, Great Northern and Thameslink.

Aslev has been locked in a nearly two-year pay dispute with no sign of a breakthrough and no plans for negotiations.Last week, Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslev, said independent April’s strike won’t be the last.

Unions say the dispute has cost the industry more than £2bn, far more than it would cost to resolve the conflict.

South Western Railway said services will be significantly reduced on a few lines, while the remaining lines will be closed. Trains only run between 7am and 7pm.

Southern Airlines said there will be no trains running across much of its network and only limited direct shuttle services between London Victoria and Gatwick airports.

Thameslink services will not run except for limited shuttle services calling at Luton, Luton Airport Avenue and London St Pancras, and another limited direct shuttle service between London King’s Cross and Cambridge.

There will be no Great Northern or Gatwick Express services. However, Gatwick will continue to be served by a limited non-stop Southern shuttle service.

Southeast said most of its routes and stations would be closed. Services will be extremely limited while trains are running and operators advise passengers not to travel.

A statement said: “If you are traveling and expect significant disruption, plan ahead and allow extra time for your journey.

“Trains running will be very busy, with late departures and early finish times. You may not be able to board trains at some stations and as services are very limited we estimate queues could be up to two hours. 165 South East Only 29 of the ministry’s stations are open. No rail replacement buses will serve the closed stations.”

There will be no C2C trains running. Rob Mullen, managing director of C2C, said: “I am extremely disappointed that an agreement has not yet been reached with Aslef. This ongoing action has a significant impact on our customers and colleagues. I hope that further meetings with the union will be fruitful and that we will see progress in Progress is being made towards ending this challenging period for railroads.”

Greater Anglia said the first train of the day will leave later than normal and the last train will finish earlier than normal (except for the Stansted Express).

Hourly train services will operate on the following Greater Anglia routes: Norwich/Colchester and London Liverpool Street; Southend Victoria and London Liverpool Street; Stansted Airport and London Liverpool Street . There will be a train service every two hours between Cambridge and London.

No other Greater Anglia services will be operated on any other routes.

Aslef members at 16 train companies are also banned from working overtime on Mondays and Tuesdays, which would disrupt services.

Pickets were set up outside train stations of operators affected by the strike.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said his members remained firmly committed to industrial action and criticized the lack of contact between the government and the railway company over the past year.

The government introduced a new law last year aimed at ensuring minimum service levels during strikes, but no train companies have chosen to use it.

A Rail Transport Group spokesman said: “Train companies are developing plans to manage the unnecessary disruption to passengers caused by this disruptive strike action.

“Minimum service levels are a potential tool to achieve this, but they are not a panacea. In the meantime, we remain committed to resolving this dispute and our proposals for a four-day week with no overtime remain under discussion , the average salary for drivers will reach £65,000.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “Aslev is the only rail union to go on strike, targeting passengers and preventing its members from voting on a pay package that is still under discussion.

“Having resolved disputes with all other rail unions, the Transport Secretary and the Railways Secretary have ensured a pay proposal is on the table – increasing the average train driver pay from £60,000 to £65,000.”

National Express has added thousands of extra seats to its UK-wide coach network.

The coach operator expects to carry more than 13% more passengers over the strike weekend and has added around 100 coach services on popular routes to meet customer demand.

Catherine Woolfe, customer and marketing director at National Express UK and Ireland, said: “People deserve affordable, reliable and sustainable public transport, but once again they are seeing rail disruption.

“Our advance bookings show demand for coach travel is up by more than 13% this weekend, with savvy customers turning to National Express for reliable, great value travel and guaranteed seats.”