Train drivers at eight rail companies will strike on Saturday 30 July in a dispute over pay, their union Aslef announced.
Members of Aslef at Arriva Rail London, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains will walk out on July 30.
Drivers on Greater Anglia will also strike on July 23, and those on Hull Trains will strike on July 16 and 23.
Today's announcement comes on top of strikes announced yesterday by the RMT and TSSA unions for Wednesday 27 July, disrupting the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
That 24-hour stoppage by the RMT union over pay, conditions and job cuts - after three days of strikes last month - was announced as chiefs rejected a "paltry" 4% pay rise offer.
The RMT strike will apply to 14 train operating companies plus Network Rail, crippling services the length of the country.
The firms hit by the RMT walkout will be Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Thameslink, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast, and West Midlands Trains.
It will begin at 2am on July 27 in Network Rail, and 12.01am on July 27 in the 14 train operating companies. Each action will last 24 hours.
On top of the above, TSSA members at Avanti West Coast will also hold a one day strike on Wednesday 27 July, the union announced last night.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said rail firms had been “disingenuous and dishonourable” while senior RMT officer Eddie Dempsey accused Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of “incendiary comments”.
Speaking at the Commons Transport Committee yesterday, Mr Whelan demanded a pay settlement that reflects RPI inflation - currently 11.7%.
Mr Whelan told MPs: “We seem to be slightly demonised in the press because all I read about is train drivers wages in comparison with other workers. We don't believe it's a race to the bottom.
“The idea that we should give up what we've earned, or it should be devalued, because of the pandemic, as an excuse we find incredibly wrong.”
Mr Dempsey said a pledge there would be no compulsory redundancies was "progress" but not enough.
He said Network Rail faced “drastic, drastic cuts” and blasted the Tories' crackdown on unions saying: “The answer the government has got to the cost of living crisis is to criminalise dissent against poverty.”
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said today: "We don't want to go on strike - strikes are the result of a failure of negotiation - and this union, since I was elected general secretary in 2011, has only ever been on strike, until this year, for a handful of days.
"We don't want to inconvenience passengers, not least because our friends and families use public transport too, and we believe in building trust in the railways in Britain, and we don't want to lose money by going on strike.
"But we've been forced into this position by the train companies, driven by the Tory Government. The drivers at the companies where we are striking have had a real-terms pay cut over the last three years, since April 2019.
Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said after yesterday's strike was announced: “It is incredibly frustrating the RMT has again chosen to disrupt our passengers, and even more so that they haven’t even put what was a fair and affordable two-year pay offer to their members.
“It is also deeply worrying that these strikes have clearly been designed to disrupt spectators heading to the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on 28 July, an event of huge national significance.
“We urge the RMT to call this action off, get back round the table with us and show some willingness to compromise.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “It’s clear now that no deal was ever going to be good enough for the RMT, and the negotiations over recent weeks have merely been for show while they plan how best to cause further chaos.
“Chaos cynically timed for the day before the Commonwealth Games begins, in a bid to disrupt the travel of thousands trying to attend an event the whole country is looking forward to.
“The industry is already on life support and by insisting on working against its employers, instead of with them, the RMT risks pulling the plug for good.”
