Image source, PA Media

Image source, PA Media

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, Labour MP for Coventry South, have joined the picket line at London's Euston station.

Both have been seen alongside RMT leader Mick Lynch.

Corbyn criticised the decision by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to sack a junior shadow transport minister who joined striking rail workers at Euston last month.

"I think to dismiss him from his shadow position was very unfair," Corbyn said this morning.

Network Rail say if you have an advance, off-peak or anytime ticket that will be affected by the strike today and on Saturday, you will be able to use your ticket either on the day before the date on the ticket, or up to and including Tuesday 23 August.

It says passengers can also change their tickets to travel on an alternate date or get a refund if their train is cancelled or rescheduled.

Some customers with season tickets who choose not to travel on 18 or 20 August will be able to claim compensation for these days through the delay repay scheme - which pays out if trains are late - Network Rail says.

There is further information available here, on the National Rail Enquiries website, external

Tim Shoveller, Network Rail's chief negotiator, has been talking to the BBC about the impact of the strikes.

Image source, Getty Images

On Friday, an RMT strike will affect both the London Underground and London Overground in separate disputes over pensions and pay. Transport for London(TfL) says people should avoid the Tube, which will have little or no services running, and only use the rest of the network if essential.

Some bus services will also be affected as drivers take part in a strike called by the Unite union. TfL has published a list of the routes, external likely to be affected.

The wider UK rail network is expected to be disrupted even though Friday is a not a strike day for most companies. This is because services will take a while to get back to normal.

On Saturday, the RMT and TSSA will go on strike again. The effect on services is expected to be the same as today, although some services will run on one of the days but not the other. Disruption is likely to continue into Sunday morning.

Unite's London bus strike will also continue for a second day.

Image source, PA Media

Figures from both sides of the rail strike debate have been sharing their assessments with the BBC this morning.

Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, tells the BBC negotiations have been "slow" and "painful" and accused the unions of "shifting goalposts" and an "absolute lack of clarity on what it would take for this strike to be called off".

Luke Chester, organising director at Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) - some of whose members have joined today’s strike - called for a package of measures for rail workers that includes pay rises related to the rising cost of living, job security for workers and contract guarantees.

"TSSA members have not taken industrial action for a very, very long time in the majority of cases. It's not something we take lightly, and it’s something that we take very seriously," he says.

He adds that train companies had made no pay rise offers, nor guarantees around conditions of service and job security.

Meanwhile Tim Shoveller, Network Rail's lead negotiator, said that talks held yesterday made it clear that "the only way to move this strike forward and to get a resolution is to get an offer out to the members so they can vote on it".

Image source, Getty Images

Education Secretary James Cleverly says it is "not right" that the public are being "held hostage by the unions in this way".

"We should remember that the rail unions are there to look after their members. They've done that very effectively," he tells Sky News.

"They've got a very good salary package, they've got an incredibly good, ridiculously good terms and conditions.

"What they're doing through these strikes is they're disadvantaging people trying to get to work.

"I think [Transport Secretary] Grant Shapps has made it absolutely clear that these strikes are unfair. It's not right that people are held hostage by the unions in this way."

RMT leader Mick Lynch says Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is the only obstacle to the dispute being resolved.

"We haven't got an offer we consider a reasonable offer," he tells BBC Breakfast from a picket line at Euston station.

"That's because the train companies and Network Rail are being blocked from making those offers by Grant Shapps."

Lynch says Shapps is "locked into a cycle where he's got to appease two really right-wing candidates" in the Conservative leadership race, in reference to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

The union leader says he believes Shapps wants to protect his position and "show them that he’s some kind of steely right-wing militant, which is what the whole party is becoming".

"Shapps has to change his stance. He has to allow these negotiators on the management side to make reasonable proposals.

"There's one obstacle to a resolution in this dispute and that’s Grant Shapps."

The transport secretary has been highly critical of the strikes, accusing unions of being "hell-bent on causing as much misery as possible".

Network Rail say if you have an advance, off-peak or anytime ticket that will be affected by the strike today and on Saturday, you will be able to use your ticket either on the day before the date on the ticket, or up to and including Tuesday 23 August.

It says passengers can also change their tickets to travel on an alternate date or get a refund if their train is cancelled or rescheduled.

Some customers with season tickets who choose not to travel on 18 or 20 August will be able to claim compensation for these days through the delay repay scheme - which pays out if trains are late - Network Rail says.

There is further information available here, on the National Rail Enquiries website, external

Lucy Westwood has spent an extra £100 on a hotel and petrol to be able to take her children to the theatre on Thursday.

She'd planned to get the train from Lichfield, north of Birmingham, to London to see Back to the Future, having bought value tickets for the August “Kids Week” where children get lower priced tickets.

"I'd got a day family return - all sorted and planned but then heard about the strikes," Lucy tells the BBC.

Unable to get a refund from the theatre she was offered the chance to swap her tickets but couldn't afford to pay the difference for the date change.

Instead, she is planning to drive and has booked a hotel outside London to break up the journey.

"It's made things a lot more difficult. I was stuck with tickets I couldn't get a refund for and two very disappointed kids," she says.

"It's the highlight of our week but it’s costing me a lot more than it would’ve to get the train which is really frustrating."

Katy Austin
Transport correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Today is the start of four days of reduced services in a row, because strike day disruption spills over into later-starting trains the next day.

The rail industry says these national-scale strikes cost them up to £30 million a day.

And three weeks on from the previous national-scale RMT strike, resolutions to the ongoing disputes don't appear much closer.

One cohort of managers who are in the TSSA have come to an agreement with Network Rail - but other groups in the union haven't reached deals with their employers.

Last month the RMT rejected Network's Rail's latest pay offer - despite their insistence that the union should put it to their members first.

Talks since then haven't produced an agreement to prevent these latest walkouts going ahead.

When it comes to the train companies, even less progress has been made.

Unions have repeatedly accused the government of not enabling effective negotiations, but the transport secretary has insisted only employers and unions can settle their disputes.

Image source, Reuters

The government says the railway system needs modernisation and has to be financially sustainable for the long term.

It says £16bn of taxpayers' money was used to support the railways during the Covid pandemic. However, with passenger numbers still down by one-fifth, it says changes are needed.

On the eve of the strike, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: "It's clear, from their co-ordinated approach, that the unions are hell-bent on causing as much misery as possible to the very same taxpayers who stumped up £600 per household to ensure not a single rail worker lost their job during the pandemic."

He said the action would ruin "millions of hard-working people's summer plans", and hit businesses with the capital's leisure and tourism sectors "set to lose millions".

Image source, Getty Images

The industrial action is part of the ongoing row between unions - particularly the RMT - and rail companies over pay, job security and working conditions, which lead to the biggest rail strike in 30 years in June.

The RMT wants to see pay increases in line with the rising cost of living. Network Rail said in July it had made a pay offer worth more than 5%, but this depended on workers accepting "modernising reforms".

The RMT dismissed this as "paltry sum" that represented a real terms pay cut.

The RMT says another issue is plans by Network Rail to cut 2,500 maintenance jobs, which the union says are "safety critical".

Network Rail says there would be no more than 2,000 job losses - and that all redundancies can be voluntary. It says modernisation is needed, but the changes would not make the railways less safe.

Yesterday, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch put out a statement saying members were now "more determined than ever" to protect their pensions, secure a decent pay rise, job security and good working conditions.

"Network Rail have not made any improvement on their previous pay offer and the train operating companies have not offered us anything new," he said.

Lynch accused Network Rail of threatening compulsory redundancies and "unsafe 50% cuts" to maintenance work if the union did not withdraw strike action.

"The train operating companies have put driver only operations on the table along with ransacking our members' terms and conditions," he said.

Network Rail says about 4,300 services will run today - about a fifth of the usual service level.

Some places, including Portsmouth, Swansea and Blackpool will have no trains at all and there will be no services running north of Falkirk.

The trains that are operating will run only between 0730 and 1830. The companies affected are:

• Chiltern Railways
• CrossCountry
• Greater Anglia
• LNER
• East Midlands Railway
• c2c
• Great Western Railway
• Northern Trains
• South Eastern
• South Western Railway
• TransPennine Express
• Avanti West Coast
• West Midlands Trains
• GTR (including Gatwick Express)
• London Overground
• Great Western Railway
• Hull Trains
• London Northwestern Railway

Transport for London says while the strikes do not involve its staff, varying degrees of disruption are expected on the District and Bakerloo Tube lines, London Overground, and the Elizabeth line, which all share some sections of track with Network Rail.

Image source, Reuters

More than 40,000 railway workers who are members of the RMT union will hold the first of two strike days - the second is on Saturday 20 August.

Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) who work at Network Rail and seven other companies will also go on strike.

Members of the Unite union who work for Network Rail will also join the walkout.

Today's action is the latest in a series of strikes that have disrupted services over the summer.

It kicks off three days of industrial action. On Friday, there will be walk-outs at London Underground and Overground, and some bus services will be affected as drivers take part in a strike.

There is another UK-wide rail strike on Saturday.

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of today’s industrial action by rail workers.

Only around one in five trains will be running today - and only between 0730 and 1830. Some area will have no trains all day.

Passengers are being urged to only travel by train if they must.

Tens of thousands of workers at Network Rail and 14 train operators are walking out across Britain, due to a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Members of the RMT union are being joined by some workers from the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) and Unite unions.

Stay with us for updates throughout the day.