The five days of strike action on Croydon’s trams planned between this Sunday, March 24, and Thursday March 28 have been suspended, Transport for London announced today.

Still running: but tram closures and possible further strikes are still coming down the line

The strike had been called by trades union Unite after five years of negotiations had failed to resolve a discrepancy in the pay of engineers working on the trams, who are paid £10,000 per year less than their colleagues performing similar work on London Underground.

But today, TfL said, “Tram services are expected to operate as normal on these days.”

There are, however, new dates for planned strikes:

• Sunday May 5 to Thursday May 9; and
• Thursday July 11 to Monday July 15

Negotiations over the engineering staff’s pay and conditions are continuing in the meantime.

The strike suspension does not affect the planned closures for engineering works which will see almost half of the network, east from East Croydon to New Addington, Beckenham and Elmers End, closed for most of April, starting from next Friday, Good Friday, March 29.

During this time, TfL confirmed today, tram services will only run between the following stops:

• Wimbledon and Wellesley Road
• George Street and Wimbledon

“There will be no service on the rest of the London Trams network,” TfL said.

“We are sorry for the disruption this may cause.”

Read more: New Addington and Beckenham trams to close for a month
Read more: Expect railway disruption during engineering works at Easter

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