THOUSANDS more train drivers are needed to end a union “stranglehold” which is pushing up fares.

The Government was warned last night that it will face repeated demands for massive pay hikes unless it trains more drivers.

Union Aslef last week announced its members are to strike every weekend for the next three months, just days after securing a 14 per cent pay rise from the Government.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones had claimed the pay increase was a good deal for taxpayers “because we are preventing strikes from happening”.

But think tank Policy Exchange says the shortage of drivers allows unions to blackmail the Department of Transport, because it means train operators are forced to depend on overtime to keep services running. As overtime is entirely voluntary, Aslef and drivers can easily cause mayhem by withdrawing it.

Training more drivers would increase productivity and limit fare increases, Policy Exchange says.

It takes 18 months and £100,000 to train a new driver and each driver must then be certified “competent” on every individual route they drive, a competency that expires after just six months.

But there is no shortage of applicants for these roles, which can pay £60,000-a-year. Instead, there is a shortage of places on training schemes.

A new report from Policy Exchange called “Full Steam Ahead: Delivering an Abundance of Train Drivers” calls for a mass recruitment campaign to train 2,000 new train drivers a year, modelled on an existing scheme for lorry drivers.

Report author Lara Brown said: “For too long, trade union power has been strengthened by a shortage of train drivers. The Government’s generous settlement with Aslef demonstrates how difficult it is to negotiate with a Union able to threaten overtime bans and disrupt the service for weeks.

“The mass recruitment of 2,000 drivers a year is the only way to end the use of overtime bans as a negotiation tactic and get Britain moving.”

Tories pointed out that Aslef has donated more than £200,000 to Labour since 2020. Shadow Transport Minister Kieran Mullan said: “After a no-strings-attached offer to throw cash at a labour-backing Union, it should shock nobody that more strikes are on the cards.”

Labour plans to nationalise rail services would give unions even more power, he said.

“It’s a taste of what is to come, a nationalised train service seeing Labour backing unions staging walkouts despite a bumper pay deal.”