More than a dozen Labour MPs have taken to the picket line in solidarity with striking rail workers today, ignoring calls from party leadership to steer clear.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer advised senior Labour MPs not to join pickets outside stations, but this hasn't stopped some of them.

A group of eight MPs gathered outside London's Victoria Station earlier alongside RMT members, while others joined pickets in Newcastle, Liverpool and Northumberland.

Among the group outside Victoria Station was Labour whip Navendu Mishra who tweeted that he "stood with all workers" taking action, while elsewhere, Scottish Labour Party Leader Anas Sarwar joined a RMT picket line to show "solidarity".

And veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott tweeted: , external"On the RMT union picket line at the Seven Sisters depot. (But don't tell Keir Starmer)."

Meanwhile, one senior Labour MP has warned colleagues that joining picket lines will not resolve the rail dispute.

Shadow Treasury Chief Secretary Pat McFadden said he understood the RMT union pressing for a pay rise due to the rising cost of living, but he wanted to see a negotiated settlement.

Read the full story here.

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

Merryn, a teacher from Twyford, contacted us on her way from Reading to work in east London.

She said she’d never usually get a seat – but did this morning.

"I think most people have taken the warning seriously."

She added she had "no choice" but to brave the journey. She caught the earliest commuter train out of Reading to get to her school.

There are normally 35 trains departing from 06:00 BST that can get you from Reading to Paddington by 09:00 BST. Today there were just four.

Image source, Reuters

More than 40,000 RMT union members from Network Rail and 13 train firms have walked out in the dispute over pay and redundancies.

The RMT union says rail companies want to cut thousands of jobs as part of a £2bn reduction in spending. It says workers have been seeing real-terms pay cuts and now face a cost-of-living crisis.

Network Rail says it wants to modernise working practices and increase efficiency, savings from which would allow a better pay deal for railway workers.

The RMT rail union accused the government of preventing employers from freely negotiating on pay.

The government says it's keeping out of talks between rail bosses and unions. However, it does say that industrial action will “endanger” jobs rather than save them.

A separate strike on the Tube, which is also taking place today, is over pensions and job losses.

Newcastle's central station was largely empty as commuters found alternative ways of getting to work.

Outside the station, RMT members formed a picket line, and we spoke to some of them.

In Sunderland many commuters had to get up earlier to catch a bus to work, rather than taking the Tyne and Wear Metro.

Although the metro network is largely unaffected, there are no services running between Pelaw and South Hylton as that stretch of the network is part of the national rail network.

While rail passengers across the UK are facing severe disruption to services this week due to industrial action, commuters in Yorkshire are facing a double-whammy due to an ongoing bus strike.

The walkout by Arriva workers, which started on 6 June, is hitting services across West Yorkshire as well as parts of North, South and East Yorkshire.

The rail dispute means commuters have been left with even fewer travel options.

Daniel Carter, a security guard, told BBC Leeds he was having to take a taxi to get to work, adding that the rail strike would make matters worse.

"I understand why they are doing it but it just makes it difficult for everyone else," he said.

The strike means only five lines in the central belt of Scotland are able to run limited services today, leaving large swathes with no service at all.

Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme spoke to our reporters around the country.

BBC Scotland's News Correspondent Jamie McIvor was at Queen Street Station in Glasgow this morning where it was "very quiet" at 0710, with only a dozen passengers in the normally bustling station.

Image source, PA Media

India Grant in Inverurie in Aberdeenshire said there was a lot of traffic on the road going into Aberdeen at 0800, where the station was shut and empty.

People were queueing at bus stops and feeling a bit frustrated already, she said.

Cameron Buttle was in Galashiels where he said there was no sign of any surge in bus use and things were "pretty normal" at 0750.

He suggested this could be the least affected area of Scotland because there's only one train line and there was no sign of large numbers switching to the buses.

Image source, Reuters

Uber users in the capital are being hit with a surge in prices amid strikes on the railways and London Underground.

A three-mile journey from Paddington to King's Cross was estimated to cost £27 at 08:45 BST, according to the Press Association.

But, by 10:30 the charge had dropped down to just under £15.

Ride-hailing apps like Uber price journeys higher when demand spikes.

Here's a useful video explaining how surge pricing works and what you can do to try and avoid it.

Thousands of rail workers have joined picket lines across the UK today in support of the strike.

RMT rail union members can be seen here outside stations taking part in the first of three days of industrial action.

Image source, Twitter/@beckyeverett

The boss of Britain's umbrella group for train operators and track owners says the employers want to bring the "bring the industry into the modern day".

Steve Montgomery, chairman of the Rail Delivery Group, tells the BBC: "These modernisation elements or reform elements are key to how we can make it better for the customer - and for staff in future."

He said the RMT union has "indicated areas they would be willing to work at.... we need to keep working... to take this forward, and try and get some resolution".

Montgomery adds:

The strike is complicating 65th birthday plans for Sue Gomersall, who lives in the outskirts of Bradford.

She and a gang of friends are regular theatre-goers and they’d pulled out all the stops to get tickets for a special matinee of Dream Girls in Leeds this Thursday.

“I think a few secret things are planned for me,” said Sue. “I know in the scheme of things a birthday party isn’t the end of the world, but this is a day out two years in the making.”

The friends live across North and West Yorkshire and were all catching separate trains to the show.

Sue had even made them little party bags to enjoy on board. But now they’ll all have to organise taxis at considerable cost.

Here's a round up of what's happening this morning:

• Rail workers have walked out on the first of three planned strike days this week
• There is widespread disruption across England, Wales and Scotland with about 20% of services running
• The government describes the strikes as "a stunt" and the PM called on commuters to "stay the course"
• The RMT has apologised for inconveniencing commuters but said it's taking action because of the threat of thousands of redundancies, along with pay and conditions grievances
• London Underground is also affected by a separate dispute
• You can find out more details about the strike and how it could affect your journeys here.

Image source, Reuters

Today's Tube strike by station staff is coinciding with the first day of the train strike.

Eight London Underground lines remain completely suspended: Bakerloo, Circle, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Piccadilly, Victoria and Waterloo & City.

The latest travel updates from Transport for London (TfL) show a number of lines are running a limited service.

These include:

• Central line: Service operating between White City and West Ruislip / Ealing Broadway, approximately every 20 minutes and between Liverpool Street and Epping / Hainault, approximately every 10 minutes. Service operating between Woodford and Hainault (via Grange Hill) approximately every 20 minutes
• District line: Trains operating between West Ham and Upminster approximately every 15 minutes.
• Elizabeth line: Reduced service is operating between Paddington and Reading / Heathrow Airport and between Liverpool Street and Shenfield
• Northern line: Tube operating between East Finchley and High Barnet / Mill Hill East and between Golders Green and Edgware, approximately every eight minutes
• London Overground: No service between Highbury & Islington and Clapham Junction / New Cross / Crystal Palace / West Croydon and between Romford and Upminster due to strike action. A reduced service is operating on other London Overground routes

The big question facing many commuters: can your employer compel you to come into work?

The pandemic has made working from home more common. The Chartered Management Institute says it expects bosses to give staff flexibility to avoid the disruption on the railways where possible.

It said: "In terms of the direct impact on commuters, there's no doubt it will be less than train strikes of two or three years ago."

But not everyone will get that option. A "great divide" has emerged between people who can be flexible in such situations and those who have to come to work, it said.

More now from Boris Johnson and his comments to the Cabinet.

The prime minister said he was urging rail passengers to "stay the course" while talks with the unions took place because the proposed reforms were in their interest.

He said they would help to cut costs, adding the programme was also in the interests of workers.

Johnson said: "If we don't do this, these great companies, this great industry, will face further financial pressure, it will go bust and the result will be they have to hike up the cost of tickets still further."

Image source, .

Boris Johnson has described the rail strikes as "unnecessary aggravation" but says commuters must be prepared to "stay the course" in the face of the walkouts.

The prime minister told a meeting of the Cabinet that reforms were needed on the railways.

"We need the union barons to sit down with Network Rail and the train companies and get on with it," he said.

At Preston railway station in Lancashire, Ian Baillie described the situation as “grim” as he attempted to make the journey to Liverpool.

“I looked at the timetable and there’s no trains to Liverpool until Wednesday so I’m trying to split the journey up,” he says.

“This journey will take over two hours just to get to Liverpool. Normally it would only take 50 minutes.”

Over at Liverpool Lime Street station in Merseyside, commuters are facing similar struggles.

Luc Johnston, a project manager for a charity, says he supports the strikes despite the disruption he faced as he waited for a train back to London.

"I think the strike is the right thing to do even if it causes me a bit of hassle,” he says.

In Bolton, Greater Manchester, confused travellers were seen trying to open shuttered doors at the railway station earlier.

BBC Radio Manchester reporter Joe McGrath said: “The news had obviously not got through to many people.

“I have seen people going up to the doors, trying to get in and seeing it is completely locked and being baffled by it."

Theo Leggett
Reporting from Farncombe, Surrey

“Normally there would be anything from 100 to 200 people here,” says John Kelly, pointing to a deserted platform.

John owns Ritual Coffee, a popular cafe at Farncombe station in Surrey. The cafe is open today - catering for a handful of regulars, despite the lack of trains.

“A lot of our clients are young professionals heading into London - many of them can work from home,” he says.

“But there are also plenty of essential workers and schoolkids. It’s very hard on them.”

His customers generally don’t have a lot of sympathy for the strikers, he adds.

“A lot of people get it, but a lot of people are in the same boat. Much of what they’re asking for - higher pay, protection for their roles, protection for pensions, are things that every worker is going through right now.

“There’s a vibe that it’s a little bit selfish by the strikers.”

Meanwhile his own business is suffering.

“For us it just feels disastrous. We took a big hit from the Jubilee - it was a very long weekend, people weren’t travelling,” he says,

“You know 70% of our business is from commuters - and if we haven’t got that, we’re just standing around making coffee for ourselves and twiddling our thumbs."

Chris Mason
Political editor

The rail strike is on. Perhaps you're reading this in a long queue for the bus. Or packed on to one of the few trains that is running.

The RMT trade union reckons the whole thing has been "manufactured" by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. Shapps claims it has been "created by the unions".

The context here, on the railways and in the wider economy, is Covid. Passenger numbers are down by a fifth, and an expensive fifth if you are a train operating company. Commuters and business travellers, who pay a premium to travel at peak times, are not travelling as much.

For that reason, ministers argue, change is inevitable. But the union says it is absurd that there is full employment and yet falling wages. Which brings us to the bigger picture. Prices are rising at a speed not seen in 40 years.

The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Simon Clarke, has said wages in the private and public sector can't keep up with these price rises, or inflation will get worse. That's quite a thing for a senior minister to say: Having less money now is a price worth paying for things getting better sooner.

Image source, .BBC

Image source, PA Media

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch has apologised for the inconvenience caused to people by this week's strikes.

The rail union boss joined the picket outside London's Euston Station today after talks to avoid industrial action failed last night.

Speaking to BBC'S Radio 4 Today programme, Lynch said members don't want to cause disruption, rather the union wants to be able to "negotiate freely" with the train operators and Network Rail.

Earlier, Network Rail CEO Andrew Haines said he would be happy to give members a pay rise above 3%, but only if he got an agreement from the RMT on automation.

Reacting to this, Lynch said the union was in a position to "accommodate and negotiate change" but first there needs to be a guarantee that workers will not face compulsory redundancies.

He acknowledged there would likely be fewer workers once technology plays a greater role across the rail industry.

"What we need to do is say that everybody who wants to continue in the new network framework will have a place in it," he said.

He added that much "negotiation, haggling and modification" on reaching a compromise lay ahead.

Glasgow Central is Scotland's busiest rail station, but this morning there were more pigeons than passengers.

The departure board initially empty, eventually showed a very limited service. The first train to London Euston was at 0754, the first to Edinburgh Waverley at 0739.

ScotRail, although not involved in the strike, is able to run only 10% of its trains, because it relies on staff from Network Rail.

The limited service will be in the central belt including between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

There will be no trains running in the rest of the country.