Yesterday, following a national walkout on Tuesday, railway services continued to be disrupted by strikes. Another strike is planned for Saturday.

This disruption is causing misery for many people across the country, and stand firmly in the way of meaningful reform for the railway. Those who travel by train to work, school, medical appointments or to visit relatives or friends will all be affected – but so will freight transport by rail which will impact supplies for days.

The pandemic over the past two years was devastating for the financial status of the railway – losing a fifth of passengers, and a fifth of its income. So the government stepped in, providing £16 billion of funding for rail services – equivalent to £600 per household or £160,000 for every rail worker. This meant that no one at train operating companies or Network Rail was furloughed throughout Covid, and critical rail services for key workers were able to continue. Thanks to government support, not a single rail worker lost their job.

It goes without saying that level of job security did not extend to the private sector during covid, despite the huge furlough funding the government spent protecting jobs.

Now, the government wants to reform the railways, to put them on a secure financial footing, so they are less reliant on taxpayer support. At the same time, it wants to modernise many of the outdated practices and aversion to technological advances by unions, which are causing inefficiencies we would not accept in any sector.

For example, leisure travel and staycations are booming, but under an agreement dating back to 1919, Sunday working is optional for staff. So many train operators rely on the ‘good will’ of employees to work on Sundays, and pay substantial overtime, making services expensive to run on certain parts of the network. Just 12 per cent of tickets are bought in ticket offices now, yet the least popular ticket offices continue to be manned - the quietest office sold just 17 tickets in 3 months.

I do understand that the cost of living is having immense pressure, but huge government funded salary increases are not realistic when attempts to reform and cut waste are constantly rebuffed by unions. Did you know that the median wage for rail workers is £44,000 and the median salary for train drivers is £59,000, with a fifth of drivers earning more than £70,000? While the average earnings for a nurse is around £31,000.

I hope the Unions will re-engage with railway employers to work through dialogue, rather than infuriate those who use the railways by pursuing more disruptive strikes and insisting on working practices not fit for 21st century rail travel.