UK train strikes 2022 LIVE: Rail network crippled as unions join forces for 24-hour walkout

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.”

Passengers warned to expect ‘significant disruption’ amid rail strikes

07:38 , Sami Quadri

Passengers have been warned to expect “significant disruption” as rail workers across several companies walk out this weekend in an ongoing row over pay.

Unions Aslef and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) have voted “resoundingly” to take strike action against the companies they say have failed to give rail workers a pay rise matching inflation.

Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said: “Despite our best efforts to compromise and find a breakthrough in talks, rail unions remain intent on continuing and co-ordinating their strike action.

“This serves only to ensure our staff forgo even more of their pay unnecessarily, as well as causing even more disruption for our passengers and further damaging the railway’s recovery from the pandemic.

“Passengers who want to travel this Saturday, and indeed next Wednesday and next Saturday, are asked only to do so if absolutely necessary. Those who must travel should expect disruption and make sure they check when their last train will depart.”

Union chief hits out at rail bosses’ pay packets

08:01 , Sami Quadri

General secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) Mick Lynch said it was an “outrage” that some railway bosses were “raking in” around £2 million a year while workers suffered pay squeezes.

He told BBC Breakfast: “We believe management want to strip down less-safe railway and of course we haven’t had a pay rise. Most of the people on this picket line have been here for three years now, and that is a cost-of-living crisis in itself.

“While our members are suffering pay squeezes the bosses in this industry are absolutely raking it in.”

Mr Lynch said a “railway rich list”, published on Saturday by the RMT, showed those being paid around £2 million a year who would benefit from Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax breaks.

“That is an outrage and I’m sure the people of Britain will be outraged by that,” he said.

RMT chief apologises to public for rail disruption

08:29 , Sami Quadri

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has apologised to the public including participants of the London Marathon as they face transport difficulties because of rail strikes.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Lynch said the union did not want to inconvenience people but warned it was the Government who had brought the dispute on.

Asked whether he would apologise to the public, he said: “Absolutely. We don’t want to inconvenience the public and we’re really sorry that that’s happening.

“But the Government has brought this dispute on. They (put) the challenges down to us, to cut our jobs, to cut our pensions and to cut our wages against inflation.”

Mr Lynch said that he had spoken with new Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who seemed “very pleasant,” but added what was needed was a change of attitude at the negotiating table.

He added: “Grant Shapps was not allowing a compromise, so I hope there’s a change of mood and a change of stance.”

Mick Lynch says those striking have ‘full support from the public’

08:31 , Sami Quadri

Mick Whelan optimistic about negotiations with rail bosses

08:51 , Sami Quadri

Mick Whelan, the general secretary of Aslef, said the union would continue with talks and remained optimistic about what could be achieved through negotiations.

Mr Whelan told BBC Breakfast: “We’re not very close at all, but again, every time we meet there’s an opportunity for something else on the table.”

Westfield Stratford warn of delays due to rail strikes

09:33 , Sami Quadri

Commuters tell of disappointment following travel disruption

10:04 , Sami Quadri

Management consultant Jonny Hauser, 30, was trying to hire a car to get back to his home in Manchester after finding out that trains were not running at Euston Station.

He said: “I was in London for work and I knew there was a strike but I booked a ticket for the wrong day – that’s a waste of £70 plus what I am now going to have to pay for the car.

“I am more annoyed at myself rather than the strikers. It would normally be about a two-hour journey on the train but could be maybe three or four in the car.”

Meanwhile, 21-year-old Hani Eid Amer had to cancel a shopping trip to Hemel Hempstead.

After arriving at London’s Euston Station, he said: “I will just have to come back and go there on another day.”

The student chef from Stratford, east London, said he did not know there was a rail strike and only realised that something was wrong when he arrived at station to find the gates shut.

He said: “I feel sorry for anyone who is looking to go to a meeting, has to get home or got an appointment.

“It is just a shopping thing for me. I will wait for maybe an hour and will just leave it.”

Pictured: Empty platforms at Paddington station

10:40 , Sami Quadri

RMT apologises for disruption

10:47 , Sami Quadri

Kathy Mazur of the RMT union apologised for the disruption caused by the rail strike but said the safety of the public was also a concern for the strikers.

Speaking at a picket line near London’s Euston Station, Ms Mazur said: “Obviously we don’t want to cause disruption to the public but at the end of the day we are doing this for the public.

“They way things are going – they won’t have a ticket office and they may not even see a guard (on services). We apologise.

“We really do not want to cause disruption, but in the long term would you really want your daughter to be walking through a station late at night when there is nobody around? I certainly wouldn’t. It would be a muggers alley.”

Pictured: Rail workers on the picket line in Leeds

11:31 , Sami Quadri

Pictured: Huge crowds join picket line at Euston Station

12:12 , Sami Quadri

Tourist caught out by rail strike

12:32 , Bill Mcloughlin

Australian holidaymaker Antonio Giusti, 19, has been quoted £368 for a hire car to get him from London to Manchester after being caught out by the rail strike.

The tourist from Sydney arrived in London a few days ago and had planned to catch a train to Manchester on Saturday morning from Euston station.

He said: “I only found out (about the strike) when I got here (today). I have been having to call back home to Australia to try and sort out stuff. I have been trying to communicate with my family about my plans and it is at a time when they are all trying to sleep.”

Mr Giusti thinks he will now have to pay for a hire car, saying: “I am just going to have to pay it as it will be the most cost-effective thing for me rather than having to pay to stay in London for another night.”

Mr Giusti says he sympathises with the strikers, adding that “they are protesting about the Government and not the people”.

‘I’ve had to cancel my plans due to the strike,’ says student

12:58 , Bill Mcloughlin

Hani Eid Amer, 21, had to cancel a shopping trip to Hemel Hempstead, due to the rail strike.

After arriving at London's Euston Station, he said: "I will just have to come back and go there on another day."

The student chef from Stratford, east London, said he did not know there was a rail strike and only realised that something was wrong when he arrived at station to find the gates shut.

He said: "I feel sorry for anyone who is looking to go to a meeting, has to get home or got an appointment.

"It is just a shopping thing for me. I will wait for maybe an hour and will just leave it."

RMT say strike is ‘about saving thousands of jobs'

14:47 , Sami Quadri

Pictured: Rail workers on picket line in Birmingham

15:37 , Sami Quadri

TSSA calls ‘a wrap’ on picket lines

17:07 , Miriam Burrell

Watch: Mick Lynch says protests are ‘working class together’

17:13 , Miriam Burrell

RMT Union’s Mick Lynch has addressed ‘Enough is Enough’ protesters at King’s Cross.

He said the cost of living crisis and rail strike protests were about the working class uniting.

“We’ll stand together as one united working class,” he told a crowd of people who were waving banners and cheering.

A wrap

18:30 , Miriam Burrell

That’s all for our live coverage today.

Goodnight