Train passengers face three more days of railway strikes next month as the crisis on the network deepens.
The RMT union announced walkouts on 14 train operating companies on July 20, 22 and 29.
Services affected include: Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, 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 and GTR, including Gatwick Express.
The industrial action will affect the second day of the fourth Ashes Test between England and Australia at Old Trafford, Manchester, and the third day of the fifth and final Test at the Oval, South London.
It will also hit two days of The Open at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club on Merseyside.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: "This latest phase of action will show the country just how important railway staff are to the running of the rail industry.
“My team of negotiators and I are available 24/7 for talks with the train operating companies and government ministers.
"Yet quite incredibly neither party has made any attempt whatsoever to arrange any meetings or put forward a decent offer that can help us reach a negotiated solution.
"The Government continues to shackle the companies and will not allow them to put forward a package that can settle this dispute.
"Our members have now voted three times to take strike action over the last 12 months - the most recent of which coincided with having the full details of the substandard offer from the rail operators.
"They voted by nine to one to renew their strike mandate and RMT will continue its industrial campaign until we reach a negotiated settlement on pay, working conditions and job security."
A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said: "More strikes are totally unnecessary. After a year of industrial action all the RMT has achieved is losing their members more money than they would have received in the pay offers they refused to put out to a vote, despite having agreed the terms with the negotiators in the room.
"We have now made three offers that the RMT executive have blocked without a convincing explanation.
"We remain open to talks and we have said repeatedly that we want to give our people a pay rise, but until the union leadership and executive is united in what it wants and engages in good faith with the 30% shortfall in revenue the industry is continuing to grapple with post-Covid, it is difficult to move forward.
"Sadly our staff, our customers and the communities across the country which rely on a thriving railway are the ones that are suffering as a result."
A DfT spokesperson said: “The RMT leadership’s decision to call strikes targeting two iconic international sporting events, as children and families begin their summer holidays, will disrupt people’s plans across the country.
"After a year of industrial action, passengers and rail workers alike are growing tired of union bosses playing politics with their lives.
"It’s high time the union leaders realised that strikes no longer have the impact they once did and are simply driving people away from the railway.
“This Government has played its part by facilitating fair and reasonable pay offers that would see generous increases for rail workers. Union leaders should do the right thing and give their members a chance to vote on these pay offers.”
* Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat , Tiktok , Twitter and Facebook
