I think we’re starting to see a creeping view from those in power that they no longer view the railways as essential as they once did.
The key thing is not the politicians viewing the railway as no longer "essential", but the passengers.
Already there's been no service on a Sunday for sufficiently long that people have devised their own alternatives. Most of them will not be back, so my hunch is that Scotland will revert to a 6-day week railway. I get the feeling that quite a proportion of those on here feel this would be "welcome" for them, and the track engineers probably say Wonderful. Of course, you lose the out-Friday, home-Sunday traffic as well, the shift workers who do Wednesday to Sunday, etc. If strikes move to weekdays as well the same will apply. It was always a minority transport system anyway.
Thinking that after a substantial strike everything will come back as normal is just unrealistic. There are a range of rail operators around the world who just gave up completely after a major strike, because the onetime customers had moved on in life. The S-Bahn network across West Berlin in the 1980s is just one example. Whole railways in the USA shut down and were ripped up for scrap after a strike, such as the Rock Island. People find alternatives, and all the synergy of past marketing campaigns and established usage is lost.
By the way, don't think the Climate Conference will notice. All the key attendees who the press focus on will come by air. The delegates will be taken to/from their hotels in chauffered electric cars. The railway will be an irrelevance, operating or not.