The prime minister has urged "union barons to sit down with Network Rail and the train companies".

Boris Johnson also said commuters must "stay the course" as reforms were "in the interest of the travelling public... but also in the interests of the railways, of railway workers and their families".

If you're just joining us, here's an overview of what's happened so far on the first day of strikes:

• Thousands of rail workers are on strike on the first of three days of industrial action
• The walkout over pay has resulted in disruption for millions of people across England, Scotland and Wales with just one in five rail services running
• London Underground services are also affected as workers hold a separate strike
• Network Rail says it's "profoundly sorry" for the inconvenience to passengers, while the head of the RMT union says much "negotiation" on reaching a compromise lies ahead
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson has described the rail strikes as "unnecessary aggravation" and is urging unions to sit down with rail companies to "get on with it"
• Meanwhile, several Labour MPs have defied the party leadership by joining picket lines in support of workers
• You can find out more details about how the strike affects your journey here

Tim Muffett
Reporting from London Euston

Image source, Reuters

There has been a withering response from striking railway workers to the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ claim this morning that some of the RMT union’s demands amounted to "a stunt".

Speaking on the picket line at Euston station, one worker, who didn’t want to give his name, told me: "Grant Schapps would be better served trying to find a resolution to this dispute than criticising rail workers who kept the country moving during Covid.

"He called our members true heroes during the pandemic – now he’s attacking them."

Another added they are being "threatened with thousands of redundancies which will threaten not just their livelihoods but the safety and security of the railway".

As the first of three national rail strikes begin, other sectors could be watching and thinking about taking similar action, the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg has told Newscast.

Speaking on Monday, Laura suggested that disruption from other public sector workers could happen "again and again and again" as they struggle with the rising cost of living.

Katy Austin
Transport correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Network Rail says it will start formal consultation on changes to working practices in its maintenance team next month.

After talks with the RMT ended without a breakthrough on Monday, it gave the union a letter saying the consultation would begin on 1 July and invited the union to take part.

The move represents an attempt to push through changes, whether or not the RMT agrees.

Network Rail says examples of the changes include using technology instead of people to do some safety inspections.

The reforms would mean cutting 1,800 jobs - but Network Rail insists much of this could be achieved by voluntary redundancy, while redeployment should mean "there will be a job for everyone that wants one".

The RMT has rejected pay offers from both Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group - which represents train companies - of 2% plus an additional 1% if reforms are accepted.

Network Rail has said it could offer more if the union agrees to modernisation plans. It argues the changes would enable savings, that would mean a higher pay offer.

The strikes are forcing many passengers to either risk the railways or find an alternative route.

Marta Kotlarek, from Holywell, Flintshire, is taking time off work to drive her sons to their exams this week.

Jakub, 16, and Michal, 18, usually take the train from Flint to school in Colwyn Bay and have GCSE and A-Level exams on strike days.

"This is a crucial year for them... they are a little bit worried," says Marta.

"I'm having to drive them because they've got morning exams on Tuesday and Thursday."

She says there's no point making the hour-long round trip twice, so she's waiting around until they finish their exams before driving back to Holywell.

Good luck with the exams, boys.

Harry Low
Reporting from Stratford station

Black cab driver Lee Embery is waiting at the taxi rank for his next fare at Stratford station in east London.

He tells me: "I'm going home in about an hour or two because I don't want to sit in traffic again. It's been a nightmare in the traffic.

"The fares are quite expensive, which people do understand but it's a difficult one.

"I don't like working the strikes to be brutally honest with you, especially in the heat."

Does he support those on strikes?

"I do, to be fair, because the cost of living's going up - food, petrol, everything.

"I do have sympathy for them because we're all working class at the end of the day."

Image source, PA Media

The Mayor of London describes the Tube and rail strikes as "incredibly frustrating" and says he hopes the unions, Transport for London (TfL) and government resolve their differences in an amicable way.

"Nobody wants strikes," Sadiq Khan tells BBC Radio London's Eddie Nestor. "Businesses don't want strikes, Londoners don't want strikes."

He confirms TfL will be meeting the RMT union again after these strikes.

"I cycled in to work today and I saw the traffic on the roads and just imagine how difficult it is for fire engines, buses, ambulances," Khan adds.

He says if the congestion charge and the Ultra Low Emmission Zone had been suspended to make using the roads easier, London would have come to a standstill.

"The buses, emergency services, the plumbers the electricians would be in more traffic today so it is really important to leave the roads for those who need to be driving," the mayor says.

Image source, Getty Images

People are being advised not to travel today because of the strikes. But if you've already bought a ticket, what rights do you have?

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators said: "If we cannot provide a service for customers due to strike action then we will refund customers."

National Rail, external has published guidance covering different scenarios and ticket types.

If your train is cancelled, delayed or rescheduled, National Rail says you are entitled to a refund from the retailer you bought the ticket from.

If you have a ticket for one of the strike days, you can use it the day before, or until Tuesday of the following week.

Season ticket-holders who choose not to travel on strike days can claim compensation for those days.

People are being advised to check with operators about switching to other routes to avoid disruption.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

Labour insiders say the party was clear it did not want the strikes to go ahead, so it was logical to warn frontbenchers off the picket lines.

The party leadership doesn't just blame the RMT for the industrial action, but the government for not reaching an agreement.

The Labour party seemed to escape relatively unscathed from the Conservative attack that it hadn't condemned the strikes.

But more harm is likely to be inflicted on its leadership by friendly fire.

Predictably, some junior frontbenchers have taken to social media to highlight their support for the RMT.

Less predictably, the pro-Starmer Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has joined them.

But what might do the most damage is criticism of the leadership's stance not by the RMT, but the giant Unite union.

Its leader, Sharon Graham, has already threatened to withdraw funding from Labour over other disputes.

Clearly the Labour leadership thought that appearing to be too close to a striking union would exact a political cost.

But discouraging its MPs from standing on picket lines could come potentially at a heavy financial cost.

Image source, PA Media

With one train running an hour between Birmingham and Euston and few trains elsewhere, passengers have been struggling to find other ways to get to work or home from holiday.

Carol Hutchinson, on her way back to the Lake District after coming off a six-hour flight from Egypt, landed to find her direct train from Birmingham International station cancelled.

Waiting for one of the few trains still running, she said: "I think it's going to be standing room only... I'm not even sure I'll get on with my suitcase."

At Coventry station, Warwickshire, passengers had only seven trains to chose from between 06:00 and 10:00 compared to 47 in the same period on Monday.

Debbie Hayton, a science teacher at a nearby school said students in the middle of their GCSEs were facing "massive" disruption.

"You can't use the rail strike as an excuse not to come into school. If you do not come into school for an exam, you fail that exam," she said.

In Crewe, the railway station is usually a hub for trains with plenty of passengers milling around.

But BBC Radio Stoke's reporter Carl Hartley said: "It is very, very quiet. Normally you can find loads of different people at 08:10 but today there is hardly anybody here.

I have just seen a train arrive which is rare today but the next one is in more than an hour's time."

Mike Hills
Visual Journalist

Polling by YouGov earlier this month, external suggests more people oppose this week’s rail strikes than support them, with about half of respondents saying they were against them.

But a closer look at the data reveals some interesting dividing lines.

When the results are broken down by age group, they suggest younger people are far more likely to support the strikes, while older people are more likely to oppose them - even though passenger data shows younger people are more likely to travel by train.

There’s also an interesting geographical divide, with the highest level of support for the strikes coming from the north of England and the highest opposition coming from people in London.

Image source, .

Train services in the east of England have been severely disrupted by the strike.

Operators, including Greater Anglia, are advising passengers to check before they travel. The company says it is running a minimal service, meaning passengers are likely to face "severe disruption" and so should only travel if it's absolutely necessary.

Thameslink, Great Northern, Chiltern, East Midlands, London North Western and C2C say are all running reduced services.

Charlie Billingham told BBC Northampton he was trying to get from Northampton to London Euston and expected it to take a "couple of hours" to get to work.

He is sympathetic to the striking workers but added: "It's a fine balance of being reasonable but there's a lot of other people that are struggling more than them so a lot of it is about the strength of the union, more than anything else."

In the end he gave up and decided to work from home instead as "there was very little point" travelling into London as it would have taken him about three hours.

Image source, Getty Images

Traffic in several cities was higher this morning as the rail strikes began, figures published by map location technology firm TomTom suggest.

It compared road congestion levels at 08:00 with the same time last week.

The figures reflect the proportion of additional time required for journeys compared with free-flow conditions.

In London, where a Tube strike is also taking place, congestion increased from 77% to 98%.

In Hull, levels were up from 55% on June 14 to 59% today.

TomTom found congestion levels in Liverpool was 55%, up from 48% a week ago, while in Newcastle it jumped from 50% to 57%.

Commuters are nowhere to be seen at the usually busy Bournemouth station, with only three taxis optimistically waiting for customers.

Abdelkader Hamdi said: "The cost of living crisis is affecting everyone at the moment, I understand. It will though have an impact on my income."

Occupational therapist, Eliza, said she was 'sympathetic' to the RMT members striking, but is frustrated at facing a week of even longer days due to revised rail timetables.

While trying to get a train from Southampton Central, she said: "I know that they are probably overworked and underpaid just like us but it's a bit frustrating and just makes getting to work much more difficult and makes my day much longer."

RMT members have been striking outside a deserted Bournemouth station this morning, while union members also created a picket line at Basingstoke station.

Elsewhere in the region, commuters say the trains are "far quieter than usual" and their journeys were "challenging".

Passenger Ryan Hairsine, who was travelling through Oxford Station, said: "It's obviously having an effect on the country, it's normally jam-packed here.

"I'm happy to take the hit if it's make it better."

More strikes expected as squeezed workers face crunchpublished at 11:53 British Summer Time 21 June 2022

11:53 BST 21 June 2022

Chris Mason
Political editor

I’m typing this heading east, when I need to head west. Like millions of others, my journey today is a bit of a long winded bodge job. But I’m lucky - at least it looks possible.

You’ve probably read, heard or seen the language from the RMT union and the language from the government. For now, at least, neither side want to budge.

And plenty at Westminster expect more strikes, and not just on the railways.

What we are seeing are the symptoms of a collision between the economics and politics of the last decade or so, dating back to the financial crisis, and the reality of now: this post-Covid, war in Europe world.

In other words, workers in much of the private and particularly the public sector were already feeling squeezed before this crunch.

There has been sluggish wage growth at best, and for many real-terms cuts. The government then spent big time during the pandemic.

But next, the effects of Covid and the war in Ukraine led to accelerating prices

Now ministers fear big public sector pay deals would not only be vastly expensive, but could make the big problem of price rises — inflation — worse.

Image source, Reuters

Some new figures to bring you from Transport for London (TfL).

Up until 10:00 BST the Tube has seen 80,000 entries and exits across the network which is 95% down compared to last Tuesday.

On buses up until the same time, TfL has seen 1.42m journeys across the capital which is an increase of 7% compared to this time last week.

Santander Cycle hires are also up 46% from yesterday.

One striking RMT rail worker says he is costing his family money to fight for what he believes is right.

Speaking from the picket line at Orpington station in south-east London, the man, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "We don't want to inconvenience anyone.

"But we're all being inconvenienced in a way with inflation... and everyone in every position needs to stand up to this government."

The strikes are forcing many passengers to either risk the railways or find an alternative route.

Here's how Vivienne O'Connor got from Ireland to Shropshire - but how will she get home?

Vivienne lives in Ireland and had to race to get the last train last night to get to Shropshire for her cousin’s funeral.

After getting the ferry to Holyhead, she managed to catch the train to Wrexham, where a friend picked her up and drove her to Shropshire.

She says there was a “Blitz spirit” among passengers on the train, as they swapped tales of their travel woes and gave each other tips on how to reach their destinations.

But now the strikes have left her stranded.

“The original intention was I was going to travel back after the funeral on Thursday, but obviously that can’t now happen because there’s no trains,” she said.

“So I’ve had to rejiggle my arrangements. I’m staying with my brother – for who knows how many days until it gets sorted.”

“And will our tickets be honoured?”

If like Vivienne your train is cancelled, delayed or rescheduled, National Rail says you are entitled to a refund from the retailer you bought the ticket from.

You can find out more here.

Reality Check

Talking about the RMT strikes on BBC Breakfast, Grant Shapps said the median salary “for the whole of the railways” was £44,000.

The RMT union disputes this figure because it includes train drivers, who belong to a different union, and does not include cleaners, 10,000 of whom belong to the RMT.

When challenged on this, Shapps said the figure was “including the cleaners… these are factual figures”.

But he is mistaken.

The £44,000 figure comes from, external the Office for National Statistics, which bases it on five categories of workers:

• Rail travel assistants, including ticket collectors, guards and information staff
• Rail construction and maintenance operatives, who lay and repair tracks
• Rail transport operatives, including signallers and drivers' assistants
• Train and tram drivers
• Rail and rolling stock builders and repairers.

The ONS publishes detailed definitions, external of these categories and none of them mentions cleaning.

You can read more about how much railway workers are paid here.