OUTGOING Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan has suggseted there “is a discussion to be had” over equalising train driver salaries when they move from private operators to Great British Railways (GBR).

Mr Whelan, who announced his retirement in August, said his successors will have to tackle pay inequalities that can see two drivers, performing similar responsibilities at the same stations, paid up to £10,000 a year differently depending on which operator’s uniform they wear.

In an interview with magazine Rail, he said: “If you’re with one organisation, doing the same job with the same abilities, it should be the same rate of pay and the same conditions.”

He added that Aslef should go back to being the “blue-collar union I joined.”

“We have ex-pilots, ex-Forces, all sorts changing careers,” he said.

“We have to start taking straight from university or from school.

“We have to change the way we look and train, the way we attract people.”

Reflecting on what went less well during his time in charge, he admitted that he was blindsided by the government turning on train drivers after being lauded as key workers during the pandemic.

He said: “When you’re successful, there’s an ability to take your eyes off the ball.

“The first 10 years in the role, while everyone else was suffering austerity, we weren’t. I didn’t see what was around the corner.

“We did our duty during Covid. We made a decision to do whatever the government required.

“Where I got it totally wrong was not recognising what the government would do next.

“The people who thanked us turned on us.”