The Rail Delivery Group has confirmed that train operating companies have offered the ASLEF union an outline proposal that would see more reliable services for passengers in exchange for a pay increase of 4% covering both the 2022 and 2023 pay awards.

The proposals also see a commitment to no compulsory redundancies until at least 31st March 2024.

If accepted, the Rail Delivery Group says that the average driver wage would increase from £60,000 to almost £65,000 by the end of 2023.

Proposed changes include a Sunday Commitment Protocol, where drivers who are rostered to work a Sunday shift are contractually committed to doing so, unless cover can be found.

Other changes include:

• Reducing the time it takes to train drivers through better use of technology
• Changing the method for learning new routes from a fixed amount of time to being based on individual skill level.
• Competent and trained managers can drive trains during disruption
• Train companies get the ability to move drivers between depots where they are shift gaps due to sickness and absence

The Rail Delivery Group says that the proposal opens the door to a more diverse work

According to Rail Delivery Group figures:

• The mean average train driver salary across the network is £60,055 which compares with £44,985 ten years ago. This compares with:
  • Rail sector employee median salary: £44,000
  • Nurse median salary: £31,000
  • UK full-time worker median salary: £31,000 
  • Care worker median salary: £21,000 
• The average driver salary has increased by more than a third – 34% – in the past decade.

Steve Montgomery, chair of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “This is a fair and affordable offer in challenging times, providing a significant uplift in salary for train drivers while bringing in common-sense and long-overdue reforms that would drive up reliability for passengers and allow the railway to adapt to changed travel patterns.

“With taxpayers still funding up to an extra £175 million a month to make up the shortfall in revenue post-covid, these changes are also vital for us to be able to fund the pay rise our people deserve.

“Instead of staging yet more damaging strike action and holding back changes that will improve services, we urge Aslef to work with us to bring an end to the dispute for our people, our passengers and the future of Britain’s railways.”