The Monday commute will not feel quite so bad this morning for millions of commuters on the stricken Southern network. On Friday the Aslef rail union paved the way for the end of the strikes that have caused such misery. At the heart of the dispute has been the potential for new technology to make public services more efficient: Aslef has rightly accepted that technology allows train drivers to fill the roles that conductors used to play, for example by operating doors (as they have on the Docklands Light Railway since 1987).

Not every union agrees. Mick Cash, the outspoken general secretary of the RMT, called the decision a “shocking and historical betrayal”. But the tide of history is not on Mr Cash’s side, for the issues at stake have implications far beyond the rail industry.