Members of the RMT union are striking on four rail franchises on Tuesday and Thursday with passengers in the North facing the worst disruption.
The union has called two separate days of industrial action on Southern, Greater Anglia, Northern and Merseyrail services in disputes over driver only operation and the role of guards.
Some of the pickets at Manchester Victoria on Tuesday
Northern said the majority of available trains will operate between 7am and 7pm, with services on some routes finishing earlier and that during these hours the overall number of trains running will be significantly reduced.
Merseyrail said a reduced service will run across its network on both days, with most trains running between 7am and 7pm and no trains on the Ellesmere Port, New Brighton and Kirkby lines.
Southern said that Gatwick Express services will operate normally, while a ‘full Southern service is expected to operate on all routes, except [cancellations on a number of routes]’.
Greater Anglia said it plans to run a full, normal service on both days, with no service alterations.
The RMT said on Tuesday morning that strike action was ‘absolutely rock solid right across the country’.
General secretary Mick Cash has written to the prime minister alleging that ‘a number of train operating companies are privately indicating to me that that it is the government that are preventing the deals that in normal circumstances they would be able to make with the RMT’.
Rail minister Paul Maynard said: 'The RMT should stop using passengers as pawns in their political game, call off this strike action and return to talks.
'This dispute is not about jobs as all the companies have guaranteed posts and I have been clear I want to see more people working on the railways, not fewer. It's not about safety either as the independent regulator has ruled that driver-controlled trains are safe.'
Paul Plummer, chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, said: ‘Train operators are doing all they can to keep vital services running because jobs, businesses and passengers deserve and need a long-term investment and improvement plan, not short-term opportunistic strikes by the RMT leadership intent on dragging the country backwards.’
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