As we've been reporting, Labour's shadow transport minister Sam Tarry has defied party leader Sir Keir Starmer by joining the picket line alongside striking rail workers.

But Tarry isn't the only one ignoring Starmer's orders as at least a dozen other Labour MPs have also shown their solidarity with RMT members this morning.

Among them are John McDonnell (Hayes and Harlington and former shadow chancellor), Richard Burgon (East Leeds), Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside), Emma Lewell-Buck (South Shields), Mohammad Yasin (Bedford and Kempston), Ian Mearns (Gateshead), Ian Lavery (Wansbeck), Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby) and Kate Osborne (Jarrow).

In Scotland, Central Scotland MSP Monica Lennon has also joined the picket, as has Ruth Jones (Newport West) in Wales.

Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker has signalled her intention to join the picket later, with others likely to do the same.

Former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who now sits as an independent, was also on the picket line.

Image source, PA Media

In Edinburgh, RMT members are on the picket line outside Waverley train station chanting “solidarity” and “workers united”.

Union member Mike Hogg said he was striking to "demonstrate to all concerned within the society" that rail workers are "demanding a pay increase because they have not had a pay increase for the last three years".

"I don’t think it’s been unreasonable to request a pay increase," he told PA news.

“What we are getting from Network Rail and the government is an attack on terms and conditions and a resounding no to a pay increase.”

Birmingham New Street has been near-deserted this morning compared to normal with most passengers avoiding the station and few services.

Operators will be hoping for a different story tomorrow with the Commonwealth Games beginning in the city but have warned services will suffer knock-on effects on Thursday morning.

Some people still turned up, unaware of the strike action, including Fabian Ward who is now trying to work out how to get home to Telford, Shropshire.

"I didn't know about the strikes to be fair, otherwise I would have driven," he said.

Simon Jones
Reporting from Euston station

Euston is normally Britain’s sixth busiest railway station. It certainly doesn’t feel that way today.

Passengers have largely heeded the advice to stay away. Some tourists have turned up, wondering how their holiday plans are going to be affected.

A few trains are running - but there are only 14 services listed for the next couple of hours. That’s a big drop on what you’d normally expect. In total, they’re only running 58 of the 314 usual daily passenger services from here.

While it’s quiet inside, outside there’s an RMT picket line. The union’s Secretary-General, Mick Lynch, visited it this morning, along with the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Inside, bosses from Network Rail have been speaking to the media. The two sides seem as divided as ever.

It’s hard to see a quick way out of this dispute.

Image source, Karen Bashford

Project manager Karen Bashford joined a long, winding queue at Orpington train station this morning, just to get onto the platform.

But the 43-year-old said it "looked much worse than it was", and she only had to wait a few minutes before starting her commute to London Bridge.

“It looks like I’m trying to get into Disney. I joked it’s almost as expensive but won’t be as much fun," she said.

"But actually, it was really good.

“They [the staff] handled it really well. It was really quick and easy."

She added that she and most others she spoke to in the queue supported the strike.

Along with RMT union workers, Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) members at Avanti West Coast have also walked out in a dispute over pay.

The union's general secretary Manuel Cortes, who is on the picket line at London's Euston Station, says TSSA members are striking because "the deep cost-of-living crisis that the Tories have created is meaning that they're losing purchasing power".

He says workers are "feeling the pinch" like many people across the country and this is now getting to an "unbearable" point.

Cortes adds that members, who are also striking on 18 and 20 August, did not take the decision to walk out lightly, but they have had to take matters "into their own hands" in demanding pay increases.

Labour's shadow transport minister has ignored orders from leader Sir Keir Starmer and joined striking rail workers on the picket line.

Speaking to reporters at London's Euston station, Sam Tarry said he was "here as a shadow transport minister backing transport workers who are on strike".

The Ilford South MP told the BBC that "any Labour MP, any Labour member, will have absolute solidarity with striking workers".

During the last round of strikes in June, Starmer told his frontbench MPs not to attend picket lines.

However, the handful of frontbenchers who defied the Labour leader's orders in June were not sacked from their jobs.

Starmer will now face questions over whether he will sack Tarry, a supporter of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, from his junior shadow ministerial role.

Another rail strike is taking place today, which will disrupt services throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Here's a look at the current situation:

Scotland: ScotRail said the railway would only be operational between 07:30 and 18:30 BST on strike days with a list of services running here., external

Final services will depart well before 18:30, and customers are being urged to plan ahead to ensure they know when their last train will run.

The dispute does not involve ScotRail staff, but will mean less than 9% of normal services will operate.

Wales: Transport for Wales (TfW) said the majority of services on the Wales & Borders network will be suspended today - see a full list of services running here., external

TfW is not in dispute with the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT), but as Network Rail maintains tracks services in Wales will be hit.

England: Lines that are open will only be running from about 07:30 to 18:30, and a special timetable is in place. The last trains from London will leave for Edinburgh at 14:00, for Birmingham at 15:43 and Manchester at 15:40.

Services will take a while to get back to normal, with more disruption expected on Thursday.

See a full list of services running across England here., external

Image source, Thomas De Fraye

Thomas De Fraye can't get to today's Women's Euro 2022 semi-final between Germany and France in Milton Keynes because of the train strike.

De Fraye, 37, from Enfield in north London, told the BBC: "I was going to go after work. Now there are no trains."

He booked his ticket "many months ago, before there was any news about strikes".

He doesn't drive and a bus wouldn't get him there in time for kick-off.

"Now there are no trains running and an Uber would cost me £90 one way," he said.

"That price would surely increase on the day due to demand and I have to get back too."

He gave his ticket away on Twitter, saying: "If I can help someone else go there, that makes me happy."

Most rail services aren't running due to the industrial action.

Here's a look at the first images coming in of deserted stations around the country:

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Some services are still arriving at London Waterloo this morning, with hundreds of passengers seen piling off trains at around 08:10 and 08:30 BST.

Moments later, though, the station returned to being much quieter than usual - as these images show.

The Kingston & Shepperton, Surbiton & Cobham and Portsmouth Direct lines - to and from the station - are all closed.

Meanwhile, Chessington & Epsom, Hounslow Loop, Reading & Windsor and South Western Mainline services are all running a limited timetable.

Image source, Reuters

Katy Austin
Transport correspondent

Yesterday, Preston station was heaving. In fact it was busier than usual, as disruption on both the East and West Coast Main Lines meant the trains that were running were really busy.

Today, a huge contrast. About one train an hour is showing up on the boards and this large station feels empty.

There are trains to Manchester Airport and some to London, and we have met quite a few people who had nervously checked in advance that they could still get their flights.

Not everyone had heard about the strike and planned for it though.

Rail commuter Talisha told us she usually gets the 08:23 train to Chorley, for her job in a store there.

She didn't know about today’s industrial action, and turned up to find her train isn’t running.

“I had no idea about the strikes here. It set me back a bit this morning,” she said.

When we spoke, she was in touch with her boss to figure out what to do.

“I’m planning on getting the bus possibly, but if that’s not happening, I won’t be getting to work today."

Another passenger, Abdul, said he had taken the bus from Blackburn to Preston early this morning because there were no trains from Blackburn, and he needs to get to Manchester today.

Katy Austin
Transport correspondent

Image source, PA

It’s already turned into an unhappy summer on the railway. This is the fourth day of national RMT strikes within five weeks.

Without a significant breakthrough in talks, more will follow next month.

Right now, it’s hard to envisage that breakthrough happening soon – although all sides say they want to keep talking.

Negotiations between the RMT and Network Rail appeared to have made progress, before a stalemate emerged.

Things haven’t even got to a pay offer with train companies – who say reforms need to be agreed first.

And other transport unions have industrial action in the diary too.

Many people can now work from home, meaning strikes don’t affect commuters in the same way they used to.

But especially in the summer holidays, plenty of people will find their leisure plans disrupted - or find themselves forced to drive at a time when fuel prices are still high.

There are other effects too, including concern among some rail freight businesses that customers will be put off moving goods off the roads and onto the rails.

Train companies and the government also argue strikes could drive people away from the railway for good, depriving it of more revenue.

Image source, PA Media

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has responded to comments by the RMT union just now, highlighting that 160 disputes have been lodged by unions in the three years he's been in the role.

"Passengers have been taken for a ride for too long by these extreme hard-left unions," Shapps tells BBC's Today Programme.

He says the proposed deal of an 8% pay rise over two years for railway workers was welcomed in the negotiating room "but as soon as it goes out to these executive committees they reject it before it gets to the members".

"There wasn't going to be a pay rise during the Covid pandemic as a freeze was going on, but there was massive support to make sure no one was furloughed or lost their job.

"This is the way the public and passengers are being thanked, by the unions preventing them going to work today to earn a living."

He says modernisation on the railways is needed, and gives the example that if railways want to run a service on many lines on a Sunday "you can only do that through the good will of staff volunteering".

Speaking now to the Today programme, RMT union general secretary Mick Lynch says reports that he has countermanded a deal that was ready to be done are "just propaganda - there was no deal that was ever acceptable to use".

He said while some progress has been made in discussions with Network Rail, no progress has been made with some of the train operating companies.

"They've not made an offer on pay, they've just set out the redundancies and changes they want to make which involves closing every ticket office in Britain and making new contracts of employment that are detrimental to our members."

He says under proposed Network Rail changes, "there'll be a massive change towards unsocial working hours in the railway industry, they want to cut 50% of the maintenance regime, 50% less inspections which we believe is unsafe - none of that is acceptable."

He says he's put these options to RMT members in mass meetings of representatives around the country but the union hasn't held a secret ballot for members to vote.

"It's wishful thinking or just plain propaganda if they think the offer they've put to us would be any way acceptable to my union or its members."

Student Blessing-Nicole Yanda from Watford was due to get the train to Birmingham City University to give a presentation as part of her digital marketing degree.

Now she can't get there - and says she's already missed lectures during the first round of strikes in June.

It's affected the 19-year-old's attendance record.

Blessing-Nicole is on a fast-track course that continues through the summer, but she's had to leave her student accommodation as it is used for the Commonwealth Games.

She moved back home to Watford, as she also performs gigs in London to earn money while she studies.

With only an hour between Birmingham and London, she says "I rely on the train heavily", but adds "it's so expensive", even with a student rail card.

"I spend £100 a week easily... it's a joke," she says.

"Rail workers get so much money and it's affecting other people's lives who can't get to work because of the strikes."

Image source, PA Media

Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail says he believes the RMT union negotiators had accepted that they’d been offered a decent pay deal but it was the union’s executive who rejected it.

“We think we were making good progress and this has happened twice now. When the negotiators go back and talk to the RMT executive, we suddenly get a shift in tone and we end up with more strikes,” he tells the BBC.

He says it’s deeply disappointing and frustrating that passenger journeys are "going to be devastated again today" as well as freight, which is “part of the economic heart of this country”.

“We put a good deal on the table, 8% over two years, and it gives no compulsory redundancy guarantees and it’s a fair deal because it doesn’t involve fare rises or tax rises.

“I want the RMT to put that to my staff in Network Rail so they can make a choice and then we can avoid more disruption for passengers.”

A few moments ago BBC Breakfast spoke to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who says the strikes are "completely unnecessary".

He blamed "very militant unions", accusing them of not putting pay offers to their members.

"It's completely wrong," he says, adding that it's now "time to strengthen our union laws in this country".

He says 16 changes, which he laid out in an article in the Daily Telegraph, external, are needed regarding strike action, and that union leaders were looking back to the 1970s instead of modernising.

Shadow Transport Minister Sam Tarry says the proposed cuts put in place on the railways are going to be "endangering people's lives".

"Getting rid of ticket offices and staff has massive implications for disabled people and visually impaired - it's just not the way to run the railways."

"These are not massively well-paid workers - the average salary in the ticket office is in the £20K and above mark, some of the safety critical workers in Network Rail between £25-30K."

He says the official line from the Labour party is to be around the table and a fair pay deal would have been put in place - "we would be sitting there having those discussions."

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch says there's been no progress since the rail strikes five weeks ago because train operating companies have made "no offer on pay and no guarantee on compulsory redundancies - so the gap between the parties is too big”.

“The responsibility lies with Grant Shapps [Transport Secretary] and this government who dictate the terms the companies can offer,” Lynch tells BBC Breakfast.

“We’ve now got into this leadership contest where people are puffing out their chests saying they’re going to make strikes illegal virtually.

"We need to get some common sense into this equation and a proper set of proposals."

He highlighted the issue of the “safety regime” saying “they’re cutting back on 50% of inspections, they want to make 2-3,000 members redundant on network rail and rip up every working condition we’ve got”.

“Most Network Rail members are paid between £25-30K, far less than a nurse or doctor, and the offer we’ve got is 4% for two years and 4% for next year – that’s way behind the rate of inflation."