The worst of the rail strikes, which have run for over a year are over, after RMT union members voted to accept a pay offer.

Although the resolution only affects Network Rail, and not the train operating companies, the RMT strikes at Network Rail had by far and away the biggest impact on the national rail network.

In a turnout of 90 percent of their 20,000 members working in the railways, they voted by 76 percent to 24 percent to accept the offer.  The RMT has now confirmed that the vote means the end of the dispute with Network Rail.

Responding to the news, Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: “I’m pleased that RMT members were able to vote on this offer and the overwhelming vote in favour is good news for our people, our passengers and our country. I’m grateful for everyone who worked so hard at Network Rail and in the RMT to find a way through this dispute. My team and I will now focus all our efforts on rebuilding our railway so we can provide a better service for our passengers and freight customers.”

The package being offered includes an increase on salaries of between 14.4 per cent for the lowest paid grades to 9.2 per cent for the highest paid. Along with increased backpay, this means will be a total uplift on basic earnings between 15.2 percent for the lowest paid grades to 10.3 percent for the highest paid grades. This represents an additional 1.1 per cent over the duration of the deal

There will also be no compulsory redundancies until January 2025.

Network Rail is withdrawing their previous insistence the offer was conditional on RMT accepting the company ‘modernising maintenance’ agenda, which the union will continue to scrutinise and challenge including on safety.

While this means the dispute with Network Rail is over at long last, the dispute with the train companies is still ongoing, and that means the planned strikes next week – on Thursday 30th March and Saturday 1st April will still take place.

However, the impact will be significantly reduced.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that “If the government now allows the train companies to make the right offer, we can then put that to our members but until then the strike action scheduled for March 30 and April 1 will take place.”