The RMT Union general secretary Mick Lynch has warned that train strikes could continue for six months if there is no progress in talks with rail industry employers.

Speaking at the Aslef picket line in Euston today, Mr Lynch said his union is reballoting now for a fresh mandate for further industrial action.

“Everywhere we go the public are supporting us in numbers. They turn out on the rallies and the demonstrations as well,” said Mr Lynch.

“You’ve only got to look at social media – the vast majority of people are supporting us in their comments and we think that will continue across the campaign.”

He added that union members had “not seen anything tangible besides a handshake and a cup of tea at this stage”.

Andrew Haines, the chief executive of Network Rail, said it was not fair to ask taxpayers to foot the bill for rail staff pay rises.

“We want to give our employees a decent pay rise,” he said.

“It isn’t fair to ask taxpayers or passengers to fund this so we must fund it ourselves, which is achievable if the unions work with us to modernise and run the railway more efficiently.”

Simon Calder, travel correspondent of The Independent, reports from London Paddington station for his daily podcast – about the “long and very, very bitter dispute” between rail unions, train operators, Network Rail and the government.

“There are trains running on Great Western Railway today, even though drivers are on strike.

“The Heathrow Express isn’t running, but airline passengers can reach the airport on the Elizabeth line.

“At the moment there’s no sign of a solution to all this.

“On Saturday it’s the big one: the RMT union has called out more than 40,000 members, closing down at least half the Great Britain rail network.

“It’s a bleak time for travellers. It has to be sorted out soon.”

Listen to the episode here:

Rail services across the UK continue to be affected today’s train strike.

Impacted operators include: Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains, Greater Anglia (including Stansted Express), Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, London Overground, Northern Trains, Southeastern, Transpennine Express and West Midlands Trains.

Read our full explainer on October rail strikes here:

Two of the rail firms who have cancelled all their services on Wednesday say they will run a reduced timetable on Saturday 8 October – the day of the next national rail strike.

Southeastern and East Midlands Railway (EMR) have scrapped all trains because of the strike by train drivers belonging to Aslef. The union members have stopped work in pursuit of a pay increase.

On Saturday, members of the RMT union will walk out nationwide in a separate dispute over pay, jobs and working conditions. But both train operators – which have hubs at London St Pancras International – intend to run a skeleton service between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

EMR will run hourly trains in each direction from London to Sheffield via Derby, Nottingham via Leicester and Corby via Luton airport.

There will also be hourly links from Derby to both Matlock and Nottingham, and between Sheffield and Nottingham.

Southeastern will operate high-speed services from St Pancras to Ashford, as well as shorter, slower journeys from London Bridge to Sevenoaks and to Dartford on routes via Greenwich, Blackheath and Bexley.

A rail union boss has urged the government to “take the shackles off the privateers” as thousands of train workers walk out over pay and working conditions in the latest of a series of strikes.

Around 9,000 train drivers walked out on Wednesday as part of fresh strike action by the Aslef and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) union, leading to the cancellation of services across the country.

The strike affected the following operators: Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western, LNER, Northern, Southeastern, Transpennine Express, West Midlands Trains, Hull Trains and East Midlands Railway.

The latest strike action marks the second this week, following the biggest walkout of the year on Saturday. Another will take place on Saturday by the RMT union.

Read the full story:

In response to Liz Truss’s speech, RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said: “It is ironic that trade unions are labelled the anti-growth coalition when it is the Conservative government who are cutting services, jobs and billions of pounds worth of investment from our railways.

“Unions represent the hopes and aspirations of ordinary working people across the country by winning better pay and conditions.

“Instead of maligning unions, the Prime Minister should turn her attention to the national rail dispute and help foster a negotiated settlement on job security, pay and working conditions.”

The Rail Delivery Group has responded to union claims that private companies are making hundreds of millions in profits at the expense of taxpayers and travellers.

On Twitter, the body representing train operators said: “There is some reporting of claims made by unions that a pay deal can be funded from industry profits.

“How the railway is funded has changed. The franchise model no longer exists.

“Train operators are paid on a performance-related fixed fee basis and make a profit margin to provide service – like all other government suppliers.

“A 5 per cent pay deal across the whole industry would cost around £280m a year. That’s around double what train operators made in 20/21.

“The industry is still recovering from the pandemic. Passenger numbers remain 20 per cent below pre-covid levels. Revenue is at 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, with 100 per cent of the costs.

“Reforms will help fund a pay rise and deliver a better, safer, and more affordable railway.

“Without these reforms, we simply can’t afford the pay deal we want for our people.”

Earlier Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan told The Independent: “Everybody we work for is turning over hundreds of millions of pounds.”

With members of the Aslef and TSSA unions walking out from their rail jobs on Wednesday, many commuters and leisure travellers are enduring their second train strike in a week.

The first industrial action of the month took place on Saturday 1 October, when some 40,000 RMT members working across various roles on the UK’s railways walked out for 24 hours.

Today’s strike is not the last of the month - RMT members working for Network Rail and 14 individual train operators will also walk out this Saturday, 8 October.

A walk-out by around 5,000 railway signallers means that half the rail network will be closed, with a much-reduced service on the remainder.

Non-union members will enable a service to run between 7.30am and 6.30pm only across about half the network.

On top of this, RMT members working for ScotRail plan to strike on Monday 10 October.

Here’s everything you need to know about this month’s rail strikes:

With many of the nation’s rail services halted by a strike by 9,000 train drivers, the new transport secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, has promised “more jobs and higher wages”.

Shortly after the prime minister’s speech at the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Ms Trevelyan tweeted: “We're unashamedly going for growth.

“The way that all of our modes of transport are powered is changing at pace.

“That’s why we're investing record amounts in our roads, railways and future green transport solutions, so that business can grow on the back of clean transport.”

Earlier, the general secretary of Aslef, Mick Whelan, told The Independent: ”We are not seeking the last three years that we've lost, we're not looking for the two years when we had no pay [rise] during the pandemic.”

He said that the series of strikes would end “when someone talks to us”.

The strike by members of the train drivers’ union, Aslef, is affecting many travellers in London, even though the Underground is not directly affected.

The London Overground, which normally runs a busy network through and around the capital, is closed apart from a tiny segment from Barking Riverside to Barking.

The Elizabeth line is operating normally, and is the only rail link to Heathrow airport from London Paddington. The Express service is suspended.

On the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines of the Underground, passengers are facing long delays between trains. But Transport for London says a “good service” is running.