Passengers were left in a nightmare situation as train services ground to a halt (Image: Getty)

       Labour has dished out another inflation-busting pay rise – this time to train drivers after years of chaos and disruption for passengers.

       The Department for Transport said it has offered the train drivers’ union - ASLEF - a 5% pay rise for 2022/23, 4.75% for 23/24, and 4.5% for 24/25.

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       The proposal – if accepted by the union – could bring to an end two years of industrial action.

       But the Government admitted that strikes have cost the rail industry alone around ￡850 million.

       Passengers have faced years of chaos (Image: Getty)

       Stations were empty as train staff walked out (Image: Getty)

       And Labour bragged that “this Government changed the tone and got unions back around the table to resolve rail disputes”.

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       Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: “When I took this job, I said I wanted to move fast and fix things – starting by bringing an end to rail strikes.

       “The Conservatives were happy to see the taxpayer pay the price as strikes dragged on and on, and passengers suffered. This Labour Government is doing the right thing and putting passengers first.

       “If accepted, this offer would finally bring an end to this long-running dispute, and allow us to move forward by driving up performance for passengers with the biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation.”

       But Helen Whately MP, Shadow Transport Secretary, said: "A ‘no strings’ deal means this will be paid for by passengers and taxpayers.

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       "We have to make our railways more efficient - but instead Labour has just caved to the unions.

       "Ditching working practice reforms leaves a hole in the finances that can only be filled by higher fares or higher taxes."

       The Department for Transport estimates that the total impact of the industrial action will exceed ￡1billion, as fewer people were able to go to work or visit hospitality venues during the strikes.

       It comes after teachers and nurses were given a 5.5 per cent pay boost, Armed Forces personnel received a 6 per cent increase, prison service workers 5 per cent and the police 4.75 per cent.

       Doctors and dentists received a pay rise of 6 per cent, while senior NHS managers will receive a rise of 5 per cent.

       Junior doctors were offered 22 per cent over two years in a bid to resolve their long-running pay dispute and end strikes.

       Mick Whelan, Aslef's general secretary, who negotiated the deal with Simon Weller, assistant general secretary, and Dave Calfe, executive committee president, said: "We are pleased that after being treated with utter contempt for the last two years by the privatised train companies, and the previous government that was pulling their strings, we finally have a new Government that listens and wants to make the railway work for staff, for passengers, and for the taxpayer.

       "The offer is a good offer, a fair offer, and it is what we have always asked for - a clean offer, without a land grab for our terms and conditions that the companies, and previous government, tried to take in April last year.

       "We will put it to members with a recommendation for them to accept.

       “We have achieved more in the last four weeks of a Labour Government than we managed under a Tory government that set out to destroy us - first by refusing to meet us, then by insisting the companies could only offer us 2%, then by offering us 4% but with a land grab for all the terms and conditions we have spent 144 years negotiating with productivity and sweat.

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       "We have gone from people behaving dishonestly and deceitfully and trying to rip up all our terms and conditions to a group of people who seem to understand the interests of rail workers, the travelling public, and the taxpayer."

       Aslef first balloted for industrial action in June 2022 and renewed its mandates for strike action and action short of a strike every six months.

       The first strike was held in July 2022, followed by regular walkouts and rolling weeks of action until just before the General Election.