Great Western Railway drivers are determined to carry on striking, and they still have strong public support, a union official has insisted in Reading.

Members of the train drivers’ ASLEF union struck on Great Western Railway on Monday, February 5 affecting services in and out of Reading. The action is the latest strike in a long running dispute over pay and conditions.

Strikers gathered with tea and bacon sandwiches for a picket line outside Reading train station, where union official Steve Austin said drivers still backed continuing action. Mr Austin told the Chronicle: “There seems to be a determination among the drivers.

“A big part of that is the way the company and the way that the government are trying to portray us in the press all the time as well. They just keep on with the claim that drivers are on £65,000 a year. At GWR drivers aren’t on anywhere near that.”

Mr Austin also said he believed the public still supported the train drivers, linking it to anger at train companies and Network Rail over disruption even when strikes aren’t on.

He said: “I think there is still a lot of support. The feedback we’re getting is 60 per cent of the public support what we’re doing.”

He added: “It’s to do with safety as well. On the Great Western Railway line they seem to have had an unprecedented amount of broken rails.

“As a trade union we’re pushing to find out why that’s been happening. It’s not Great Western’s fault. It’s national investment in the railway itself.”

The government blames ASLEF union leaders for the continued strikes and disruption. The union’s leadership rejected an offer to end the dispute in April last year. But the government says union leaders should have allowed its members to vote on whether they wanted to accept the offer.

A department for transport spokesperson said: “Aslef’s leadership is refusing to let their members vote on an offer that would see the average train driver’s salary increase to £65,000.

“The transport secretary and rail minister have already facilitated talks that led to this fair and reasonable offer from industry – Aslef bosses should put it to their members so we can resolve the dispute.”

But Mr Austin said the union couldn’t ask its members to vote on the deal unless its leading executive committee thought they could recommend accepting it.

He added they couldn’t recommend the deal because it involved asking drivers to accept terms and conditions including short-notice changes to shift rotas. And he said drivers’ participation in strikes, and repeated votes to strike, showed that they agree.

Mr Austin called on the government to allow train companies to negotiate a new offer. He said: “They need to either sit down as a whole and negotiate or let the individual companies negotiate.”