COMMUTERS face more disruption after train drivers announced more strikes on the National Express East Anglia network.

Train drivers' union Aslef said its members would walk out for a week from September 21 in a long-running row over pay and conditions.

The union said it failed to accept a deal aimed at ending the dispute.

Workers staged strikes last month which hit services on the Chingford to Liverpool Street line and many others across London, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The action was suspended after a new deal was put forward.

However, Aslef has now said its 800 members refused to accept the deal in a ballot, so fresh strikes will be held.

Andrew Chivers, National Express East Anglia's managing director, said: "I am extremely disppointed that Aslef has rejected our pay offer which amounts to a salary increase of at least four per cent within a year, and announced a resumption of strike action.

"Even though our offer has been accepted by the RMT and TSSA unions by over 80 per cent of votes in their ballots, Aslef is planning to cause further unnecessary and totally unjustified disruption to our customers who have already suffered enough through the earlier series of strikes.

"We will be asking Aslef for urgent talks to avert any further strike action."