Train drivers and the UK government have reached a deal that could end more than two years of conflict between rail operators and unions during which wide-ranging strikes have led to weeks of misery for passengers.
The drivers’ union Aslef said on Wednesday a deal had been agreed in principle with the Department for Transport (DfT) that would result in a pay rise of 5% for 2022-23, 4.75% for 2023-24 and 4.5% for 2024-25 – all backdated and pensionable.
Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary, said: “The offer is a good offer – a fair offer – and it is what we have always asked for, a clean offer, without a land grab for our terms and conditions that the companies and previous government tried to take in April last year.”
He said the offer would now be put to the union’s members with a recommendation to accept. If members approve, it could bring an end to a standoff with 16 English train operating companies stretching back to July 2022.
Over that period, train drivers have carried out 18 days of strike action and a run of overtime bans, which have brought to a standstill much of the rail network in England and some cross-border services into Scotland and Wales.
The new Labour government had indicated shortly after last month’s election that it would seek a swift resolution to the long-running national pay dispute, and several meetings have taken place in recent weeks.
The latest deal marks an improvement from the previous offer in April last year that was rejected by Aslef members. The earlier offer would have given drivers an 8% pay rise over two years but also included a number of changes to working conditions.
Under the previous Conservative government, pay talks stalled between drivers, the DfT and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), the body that represents train operators, after the April 2023 offer was rejected. Aslef said in May it had not had a meeting with the then rail minister, Huw Merriman, since January 2023.
After Labour’s election victory, the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, met with rail unions and promised “an era of grown-up industrial relations”. When negotiations with Aslef restarted last month, meetings took place directly between the union and the DfT, with the RDG no longer involved in the process.
Aslef was the only rail union that had yet to agree a pay deal after widespread industrial action across the sector that began in June 2022 with strikes by the RMT, which represents train crew, signallers, station staff and maintenance workers.
The RMT was in dispute with Network Rail, which is responsible for infrastructure such as track, stations and level crossings, as well as with the English train operating companies.
The union agreed a pay deal with Network Rail in March last year and struck an agreement with the RDG that November. By the time both disputes were resolved, the RMT had held more than 30 days of strikes affecting services around Britain, some of them overlapping with Aslef action. The RMT is still in negotiations over 2024 rises.
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Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association union agreed to end their separate national dispute with the RDG after a pay deal was reached in February last year. The TSSA agreed a deal with Network Rail in December 2022.
The rapprochement with Aslef comes after the government announced more protections for workers and early steps to ensure rail nationalisation in the king’s speech last month.
Haigh said: “When I took this job, I said I wanted to move fast and fix things – starting by bringing an end to rail strikes.
“The Conservatives were happy to see the taxpayer pay the price as strikes dragged on and on, and passengers suffered. This Labour government is doing the right thing and putting passengers first.
“If accepted, this offer would finally bring an end to this long-running dispute, and allow us to move forward by driving up performance for passengers with the biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation.”