This dispute has now been ongoing for a number of months, and from a passenger viewpoint its just another issue in the whole TPE saga, which seemed to have leapt from crisis to crisis over the last 4 years. I realise there are effectively 3 players in this dispute, TPE, Union and DfT, but a potential passenger trying to travel on days when the service is decimated doesn't care, he/she either doesn't travel, or has a throughrly unpleasent/inconvenient journey.
Looking at the big picture, the public want a 7 day a week railway, and with the increase in lesiure travel Sunday services become even more important. The country as whole is looking at rising inflation and economic problems caused by Covid and the war in Ukraine, these problems mean that goverment spending is going to be under scrutiny for some years.
TPE in common with a lot of TOCs receive a government subsidy, this subsidy comes from taxpayers, and given the fluid situation in politics at the moment, particularly in the north where traditional allegiances seem to have gone I could forsee a situation where the voters see rail subsidies as a waste of money because when they want to use the services that their tax is supporting they are not running.
This would leave the DfT, TPE and unions in a situation where they fighting over a 'corpse' with reduced funding.
I realise the Unions want the best deal for their members, the DfT want contain costs, and TPE want to maximise profits, but unless some realism creeps into all 3 sides they could end up in a very unpleasent place.
Trying to align terms and conditions which probably date back in part to the nationalisation of the railways in 1948 seems to me to be part of the problem. I think a GBR solution is going to be needed, and my solution would be to say "This is what we need to run a seven day railway" ensuring that incomes are protected, i.e. no one suffers a pay cut assuming they work to a similar pattern as previously, and there then has to be a degree of, 'this is fair, take it or leave it' Would the unions then continue to persue industrial action which would effectivley destroy their industry, I dont know, past history says possibly, but I also think public sympathy would be very limited in this situation. Equally TPE could hand the franchise back, and it becomes another OLR run TOC if they don't like the 'imposed' solution.