THE largest rail strike for a generation caused severe disruption on Tuesday, with more cancellations happening on Wednesday.
Many passengers’ journeys took several hours longer than normal, while those who chose to travel by car instead were greeted by a surge in traffic.
Just a fifth of trains ran on Tuesday and half of all lines were closed.
Last trains were much earlier than normal, such as London Euston to Glasgow at 1.30pm and London King’s Cross to Edinburgh at 2pm.
The network was due to shut down at 6.30pm.
The chaos will continue on Wednesday, with only 60% of trains running, mainly due to a delay to the start of services as signallers and control room staff are not doing overnight shifts.
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Some 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Network Rail and 13 train operators walked out on Tuesday in a bitter dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
Much of Britain had no passenger trains for the entire day, including most of Scotland and Wales, the whole of Cornwall and Dorset, and places such as Chester, Hull, Lincoln and Worcester.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told a meeting of the Cabinet that reforms are vital for the rail industry and passengers.
He said: “I say this to the country as a whole, we need to get ready to stay the course.
“To stay the course, because these reforms, these improvements in the way we run our railways are in the interests of the travelling public, they will help to cut costs for farepayers up and down the country.”
Usually busy stations such as Glasgow Central were nearly deserted except for union picket lines.
Many people worked from home rather than travelled to offices.
Strikes are also planned for Thursday and Saturday.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is considering possible disciplinary action after several of his party’s MPs joined picket lines outside stations.
He ordered his frontbenchers not to join picket lines as the Tories have looked to use the row to claim Labour is supporting travel chaos.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch warned that the dispute could continue for months.
The union has been asked by Network Rail to attend formal consultation talks next month on introducing “modern working practices”.
Network Rail official Tim Shoveller said the changes will mean “dumping outdated working practices and introducing new technology”.
He added: “We expect this will reduce roles by around 1800, the vast majority of which will be lost through voluntary severance and natural wastage.”
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