Do you think train drivers on over 1k a week get paid enough? They don't think so. The next lot of threatened strikes will be in about 6 months.
When people talk about average train driver pay you have to factor in that you're talking about an industry which has built up an operational model entirely reliant on overtime.
There is a massive shortage of drivers. Anyone who uses the trains regularly will be able to tell you about cancellations due to there being no available driver.
But here's the problem. Being a train driver can't be that hard right? Well if you look into the training there's far more to it than you might expect, largely because drivers are responsible for a huge percentage of train safety checks. But if that doesn't put you off and you want to apply for a trainee driver place you're going to hit a problem, they are virtually non-existent.
TOCs don't want to pay the cost of training new drivers, so unless you have the money to put yourself through private training you're fucked. So we have a very limited number of new drivers coming into the industry while the older drivers are retiring. Therefore the pool of available staff are being asked to work additional hours, for which they are rightly paid, and people then complain that drivers are paid too much.
The proposed solution to this is not, as you may think, to recruit and train more drivers, its to expect existing drivers to accept new contracts that restrict the amount they are paid in overtime.
Also important when talking about potential rail strikes to distinguish between strikes purely over pay and strikes over proposals to reduce safety standards. The later is something we implemented in the past and led to an increase in 'incidents' so the idea we do it again under the guise of modernisation seems crazy.