Some passengers fear the disruption following the 48-hour rail strike could last until at least Sunday, because of trains and drivers being in the wrong places.

It is “up to the unions to decide” if they want train services in northern England to improve, according to Transport Secretary Mark Harper.

The Cabinet minister claimed he gave TransPennine Express and Northern “the scope they need to put a meaningful and generous” offer on rest-day working to drivers’ union Aslef.

Thousands of services have been cancelled across the region at short notice in recent months.

Much of the disruption has been caused by workers no longer volunteering to do paid shifts on their rest days, amid an industrial relations crisis across the sector.

In a statement to Parliament, Mr Harper wrote: “Aslef need to enter negotiations and put any new deal to its members and, if accepted, do all it can to make that deal work.

“TransPennine has made a generous revised offer to Aslef and it was almost immediately rejected without being put to members.

“It is up to the unions to decide if they want to improve services, for the good of passengers and the wider economy in the North.”

More railway union strikes are planned in the coming weeks, threatening huge disruption to trains in the busy run up to Christmas.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch is due to hold another meeting on Thursday with employers and the Government, but there is little sign of a breakthrough in the bitter row.

He said: “If all 16 days of action go ahead, over £300 million will have been spent by the taxpayer to ensure they [train companies] suffer no financial detriment.

“The cost-of-living crisis is accelerating out of control and the trade union movement is stepping up to the plate across multiple industries to protect workers.

“We send our heartfelt solidarity to the nurses and their union the RCN on their historic strike tomorrow, along with our heroic postal workers who are striking on issues very similar to our own.”

A 48-hour strike by rail workers has been “solidly supported”, causing travel chaos across the country, a union said on Wednesday.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) walked out on Tuesday in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

The union congratulated its 40,000 members for taking 48 hours of strike action which shut down large parts of the railway across the country.

Mick Lynch said: “I congratulate RMT members who have shown enormous dignity and rock-solid fortitude throughout this 48-hour strike.

“They have shown how important their work is to the functioning of the economy and wider society.”

Real concerns remain about the level of cover nurses will provide for cancer patients during Thursday’s strike, the head of NHS Employers has said.

In a letter to NHS leaders, Danny Mortimer said some aspects of talks with the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) had been disappointing and warned that “unless the Government indicates a willingness to negotiate on pay-related matters, further strike dates will be announced by the RCN for January 2023 and beyond”.

The letter, dated Wednesday December 14 and seen by the PA news agency, said: “To be clear - real concerns remain.

“There are areas where we are disappointed that we have not been able to make more progress with the RCN, with the limited national derogations for cancer services a particular area of worry.”

A British football fan claims to have booked two flights from Manchester to Birmingham to reach a football match in Coventry on a train strike day.

Twitter user @ASCFC_x, named only as Ashley, said he had found that flying via Dublin was cheaper than taking a coach between the two UK points.

Ashley posted a screen shot of Ryanair flights departing Manchester Airport at 8.05am on Saturday (17 December), connecting in Dublin and reaching Birmingham at 11.45am. The football match will take place at Coventry Arena, a 23-minute drive away.

The fan claimed the air fare had cost him £22 return.

Fellow fans pointed out that National Express coach fares were available for £23.10, but Ashley responded that he’d found the air route both easier and cheaper.

“I booked a return flight for £21 and a single with the national express was £25, just made sense to take the flight, luckily I’m getting picked up from Brum airport and getting a lift to Cov from there,” he explained in a follow-up tweet.

The tweet has sparked a debate about the best way for football fans to get around December’s train strikes.

Even though the latest train strike by members of the RMT union ends at 1.59am on Thursday, disruption to rail services will continue well into the morning.

The exact stipulation is that Network Rail and train operator staff should not sign on for work until 2am at the earliest, meaning some night shifts will be left uncovered.

This means airline passengers in the London area trying to reach an airport could encounter serious problems making early flights.

The first train from London Victoria to Gatwick airport does not arrive until 7.49am, too late for the first wave of flights. All National Express buses from Victoria Coach Station to Gatwick before 8am are sold out.

At Luton Airport Parkway, the first arrival from London St Pancras international is at 7.41am. The first National Express bus from Victoria Coach station is the 5.40am, arriving at 7.15am.

Stansted airport is accessible by train from London Liverpool Street from 7.25am (arrives 8.15am). National Express has no coach seats available between 1.10am and 9.30am.

London Heathrow is always available overnight by the N9 bus from central London.

On the second day of the latest national rail strike, commuters in the London area who rely on the London Underground and Elizabeth line are experiencing “severe delays” on some stretches.

The segments of the Elizabeth line outside central London are currently disrupted. Transport for London (TfL) is saying: “Severe delays between Paddington and Reading and between Liverpool Street and Shenfield due to strike action by national rail staff.”

On the London Underground the day has been characterised by delays and cancellations on some lines.

The Hammersmith & City and Circle lines have had staffing and congestion problems, with long delays at times. The northeastern segment of the Central line, between Leytonstone and Epping, is experiencing “severe delays”.

TfL says there are minor delays on the rest of the line due to train cancellations.

Elsewhere, the southwestern end of the District line between Turnham Green and Richmond is disrupted “due to strike action by national rail staff”. The Underground line is shared with rail services and signalled by Network Rail personnel.

There’s no train strike scheduled for tomorrow - the official RMT Union strike dates this week are 13-14 December and 16-17 December (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday).

However, as with most train strikes, operators are expecting disruption running into the morning of Thursday 15 December, the “between” day.

Network Rail advises that “Services will start later in the morning”, with disruption typically continuing on UK train routes until around 11am the day after strike days. As with the strike days themselves, travellers hoping to use the train networks first thing on Thursday should check with their train operator or the departures information of their local station for any disruption.

The same will be true of Sunday (18 December), after the second 48-hour RMT walk-out on Friday and Saturday; as well as 5 and 8 Jan, the “between” and “after” days around the RMT Union’s January strike dates.

Train drivers at Avanti West Coast are to be balloted for industrial action in a row over rosters.

Aslef accused the company of imposing new working patterns without agreement.

General secretary Mick Whelan said: “I can hear the sound of chickens coming home to roost.

“Avanti West Coast has never employed enough drivers to deliver the services it has promised passengers, businesses, and the Government it will run, which is why, every day this year, the company has come up short.

“Earlier this year, in the summer, Avanti tried to blame drivers for taking “unofficial industrial action”, which it knew to be untrue.

“Now the company has been caught out again because it is trying to run its service on the West Coast main line on the cheap - cheating staff, passengers, and taxpayers - to line the pockets of its shareholders. That is a disgrace.

“If it had done the right thing and employed, as we have consistently asked it to do, enough drivers it would not have had the problems that have persisted all through this year.

“Now the company, to try to cover its own inadequacies, is trying to impose rosters on drivers without going through the proper and agreed process.”

Reporting by PA