Train drivers set to be given £2,000 pay rise in bid to end ongoing strikes

TRAIN drivers are set to be offered a new pay deal worth more than £2,000 extra per year in a bid to end ongoing strikes.

A new package worth four per cent for two consecutive years is being thrashed out by rail firms.

Rail bosses hope that if train drivers’ union Aslef back the deal it will further tighten the screw on the RMT and their leader Mick Lynch to find a solution.

The package could be formally put to Aslef in a meeting early next week.

Around 12,500 drivers are set to walk out tomorrow across 15 rail companies, bringing affected services to a standstill.

The intervention comes after 40,000 RMT rail workers downed tools yesterday as they embark on two 48-hour walkouts this week.

An industry source said: “The median salary for a train driver is £59,000 per year which means this would be a decent increase. If accepted, the RMT look more and more isolated.”

Transport Secretary Mark Harper yesterday told striking rail workers that there is “not a bottomless pit of taxpayers’ money”.

He said: “Taxpayers have put a huge amount of investment into the rail industry over the last few years when it was hit with a huge impact from the pandemic when people weren’t travelling.

“I think you have got to have an offer that is both fair to the people working in the industry but that is also fair to the taxpayer that is picking up the tab.”

But RMT boss Mick Lynch says industrial action will carry on into the summer unless a reasonable offer is made to the union.

He accused Ministers of “undermining efforts to get a settlement” and claimed they had “torpedoed” an agreement last month.

Downing Street said that the RMT’s course of action is “self-defeating”.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Economics and Business Research says strikes this week will cost £330 million, bringing the total to £1.3 billion since June.