A BELATED apology by a transport official for his anti-union rant against striking train drivers “rings hollow,” rail unions said yesterday.

Department for Transport (DfT) official Peter Wilkinson, who earlier this year called train drivers “muppets,” is accused by unions RMT and Aslef of lying about drivers’ salaries and getting a string of facts wrong.

At a public meeting in Croydon hosted by Tory MP Gavin Barwell in February, Mr Wilkinson said he wanted a “punch-up” with the rail unions and that he would force them into a strike, then “break” them.

He said: “We’re going to have punch-ups and we will see industrial action and I want your support. We have got to break them [the rail unions and their members].

“They have all borrowed money to buy cars and got credit cards. They can’t afford to spend too long on strike and I will push them into that place.”

Mr Wilkinson, who makes £265,000 a year as director of rail passenger services at the DfT, was hauled before the House of Commons transport select committee on Wednesday where he finally yielded to pressure and apologised for his egregious remarks.

But the RMT took the apology with a pinch of salt.

General secretary Mick Cash said: “This apology rings hollow because the union bashing rant that Wilkinson let slip at the infamous Croydon Tory meeting is an example of the blueprint that is now being wielded out to jobs, safety and services on rail franchises from the tip of Scotland to the south coast [of England].”

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “I am glad that Peter Wilkinson has, eventually, said sorry, properly, for remarks — a toxic cocktail of insults, ill-informed opinion, half-truths and downright lies — made five months ago at a public meeting in February.

“It’s taken him a very long time to do the decent thing but we are glad that he has.

“Now that transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has been moved, and rail minister Claire Perry resigned, we have an opportunity to move forward together, all of us who work in the rail industry, to build a better railway for the benefit of passengers, business, and staff alike.

“That is what we at Aslef have always sought to do. It might be that Mr Wilkinson has seen which way the wind is blowing.”