ASLEF members have voted to end their long-running pay dispute and to accept the offer which was made by the Department of Transport in August.

ASLEF drivers at most train operators in England have been in dispute since 2022 over pay, and there has been a series of strikes.

The union said: ‘The previous Tory government refused to let our employers, the train operating companies, negotiate freely and refused to allow them to make a fair offer. This made the dispute political.’

When the Labour Government was elected in July, transport secretary Louise Haigh called new meetings with the union, and these resulted in a new offer. 

ASLEF members have voted to accept the offer by a large majority. A total of 10,971 (96.58 per cent) said yes, and 389 (3.42 per cent} said no.

The turnout was 11,365, or 88.53 per cent of the union’s membership.

The amount of the rise has not been revealed, but it is known that controversial proposals to end voluntary rest day and Sunday working, replacing it with seven-day rosters, are not part of the settlement.

ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘It just shows what can be done when the grown-ups come into the room. The Tory government sat on their hands and refused to talk to us. But this Labour government has worked with us to resolve this dispute.

‘The offer is a fair offer and it is what we have always asked for, a clean offer, without a land grab for our terms and conditions. We achieved more in the first four weeks of a Labour government than we managed under a Tory government that set out to destroy us.'