Train drivers on line crippled by ‘strikes’ are paid £80,000

TRAIN drivers on a major line being crippled by ‘unofficial strike action’ on average earn about £80,000 a year, it emerged yesterday.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps branded union barons ‘incredibly greedy’ for allegedly orchestrating the unofficial action while demanding more money for drivers.

The average drivers’ salary across the country is £60,000.

As few as four trains an hour started running on the West Coast Main Line, which connects London with the North and Scotland, under an emergency timetable yesterday.

Operator Avanti West Coast normally runs up to seven an hour.

London to Manchester is the worst affected route, with services reduced from three an hour to one.

The reduced timetable will run ‘until further notice’.

The Labour mayors of London, Manchester and Liverpool have blamed Avanti bosses for a failure ‘to manage rostering and rest day working’ of staff. But Mr Shapps said this is ‘misleading and wrong’

‘Completely outrageous’

pointed to figures showing overtime and rest days being worked plunged 90 per cent.

The drop came amid drivers’ union Aslef balloting members on industrial action in a row over pay.

Mr Shapps said: ‘It’s completely outrageous. Aslef are claiming this is all coincidental. But all I know is, three days after they balloted for action short of strike action, that was on July 27, on July 30 all of a sudden there’s no one to run the services.

‘It’s a demonstration of why we need to modernise the railways and I just think that the unions are taking passengers for a ride and not in a good way because these are drivers who are paid on average around £80,000 a year.

‘It’s just extraordinary. The unions are incredibly greedy.

‘And rather than blaming the people who are actually causing the problem, Aslef and the union bosses who are being so militant, mayors [Andy] Burnham, [Sadiq] Khan and [Steve] Rotherham are trying to divert blame somewhere else.

‘All three have enjoyed tens of thousands of pounds of donations from unions, so they’re just in the unions’ pockets.’

Electoral Commission figures show Mr Burnham has accepted over £25,000 in trade union donations since 2016.

Mr Rotherham also accepted £35,000 between 2010 and 2016 and Mr Khan £140,000 in 2015, the year before being elected.

Avanti yesterday blamed ‘the current industrial relations climate’ and ‘the majority of drivers making themand selves unavailable for overtime in a co-ordinated fashion, and at short notice’. It relies on drivers working on contractual rest days to operate about 400 services every week.

But the slump in overtime work availability means the number able to run has fallen to about 50. Most drivers are contracted to work four-day weeks and salary rises would have to be subsidised by taxpayers or farepayers.

Aslef boss Mick Whelan has denied orchestrating an unofficial strike, calling Avanti bosses ‘lying cheapskates’ who did not employ enough drivers and over-relied on rest day working and overtime.

Avanti was one of nine operators hit by a 24-hour walkout ordered by Aslef on Saturday.

And this Thursday and Saturday about 40,000 workers for Network Rail and 14 train firms will walk out after the militant RMT union called for separate strikes.