More trains than ever will run during the national rail strikes tomorrow and on Saturday - but passengers are still advised to only travel if "absolutely necessary".
About 4,300 trains will run - about 20 per cent of normal - with some direct links between London and the rest of the UK in place until mid-afternoon. However, parts of the country will have no services - with Thameslink and Southern saying there will be few if any trains in south London.
The strikes will affect music fans heading to the Coldplay concert at Wembley and the All Points East festival in Victoria Park on Saturday, as well as West Ham's Europa Conference League match tomorrow evening. There will be knock-on impacts into Friday, when a 24-hour Tube strike will bring the London Underground to a near standstill.
Mayor Sadiq Khan has appealed to the RMT union, which is taking action to protect pensions and working conditions in light of the loss of up to 600 station staff posts, not to "punish Londoners" and work with City Hall to secure a long-term funding deal for Transport for London.
The last Edinburgh train will leave the capital at 2pm tomorrow. Services to Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester will run until after 3pm and to Bristol until just after 5pm, with the last Brighton train leaving at 5.50pm.
Members of the RMT and TSSA unions working for Network Rail and 19 rail companies are taking action over pay and job security. The firms affected include the London Overground, Avanti West Coast, c2c, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, GTR (including Gatwick Express), LNER, London Northwestern, Southeastern, South Western Railway, Heathrow Express and Stansted Express.
South Western Railway said "significant parts" of its network would be closed all day. Network Rail said it had made a "good and fair offer" of about eight per cent over two years - with lower-paid staff offered 13 per cent - in return for reform of working practices. But the RMT's executive has refused to allow its members to vote on the offer.
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