Rail users are set for severe travel disruption on Saturday due to the biggest strike of the year.
Only 11 per cent of normal services will run as members of four trade unions strike for 24 hours, causing the worst rail disruption of the year so far.
Due to the strike by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), train drivers' union ASLEF, the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), and Unite (at Great Western Railway), lines will be closed for the whole day between London and several major cities such as Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle, Norwich and Manchester.
The dispute will see strike action on: Network Rail, Avanti West Coast, c2c, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, LNER, London Overground, Northern Trains, Southeastern Railway, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, West Midlands Trains, and GTR (including Gatwick Express).
“We don’t want to be on strikebut this dispute will continue until the Government lifts the shackles from the train companies,” said Mick Whelan head of ASLEF.
"The message I am receiving from my members is that they want more industrial action, so I think more strikes are inevitable."
Mick Lynch, head of the RMT said: “Despite our positive discussion, the Chancellor’s intervention has made an already difficult dispute harder to resolve.
“I am also concerned the Government has recently been taking action that is lining the pockets of the ‘railway rich’ whilst rail workers continue to endure pay freezes and real-terms pay cuts.”
