Rail union leaders have told MPs there is much left to agree if further national strikes are to be averted.

RMT leader Mick Lynch said in evidence to the transport committee that they were “a long way” off on the pay issue.

He said Network Rail and train operating companies were offering well under half what his members deserved to navigate the cost of living crisis, after years of pay freezes.

His colleagues at the Aslef and TSSA unions declared they were as far away as was possible to be from deals to end their separate disputes.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of the drivers’ Aslef union, told the MPs: “We are further away than where we started”, when asked about the state of play in its row with train operators.

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