The Transport Secretary has vowed to take on rail unions as strike misery for commuters drags on.
Heidi Alexander said she will prioritise passengers with a “don’t blink” approach to negotiations on ending industrial action.
It appears to mark a change of approach from Louise Haigh, her predecessor, who negotiated a series of inflation-busting pay deals to bring previous disputes to an end soon after the general election.
Earlier this month, workers on London’s Elizabeth Line announced a walkout after rejecting a £76,000 per-year pay offer.
Meanwhile, workers from Mick Lynch’s RMT union remain in a dispute with Avanti West Coast over rest-day working.
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In December, the union announced its members would walk out every Sunday from January 12 until May 25, but suspended the strikes earlier this month following a breakthrough in talks.
A source close to the Transport Secretary told The Telegraph: “Delivering a reliable, seven-day-a-week railway that serves passengers first is the absolute priority.”
Ms Alexander told the BBC: “I won’t hesitate to do the right thing by the travelling public, and there will be difficult discussions to be had.”
The Transport Secretary told Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast: “I don’t think this is a case of anyone seeking to break the unions. But I do think that anyone who is running public transport in this country has to appreciate that sometimes the trade unions are going to be wrong and sometimes they will have a point, and that sometimes compromise will need to be reached.”
‘We don’t blink now’
She spoke of facing down strikes by Transport for London workers during her time as London’s deputy mayor for transport.
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“We took multiple strikes when I was at Transport for London,” she recalled, “and you know, Sadiq [Khan] is saying to me how many strikes we’re going to have to take, and I’m saying we don’t blink now.”
Ms Alexander was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer in December after the resignation of Ms Haigh, who quit after it emerged she had previously been convicted of fraud by misrepresentation.
Shortly before her resignation Ms Haigh presided over the passing of the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act, which will gradually bring Britain’s railway franchises into public ownership.
One her first acts after the election was to hand a 15 per cent pay rise to mainline train drivers. The pay award helped to end a two-year long strike that began in 2022.
It is understood, however, that the pay increase did not reach drivers on the TfL network, who continue to strike.
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