FAT-CAT rail bosses are awarding themselves eye-watering annual pay rises while urging their staff to show “wage restraint,” RMT general secretary Mick Lynch charged today as tens of thousands of workers staged further strikes across the network. 

Up to three in five train services were cancelled as the transport union’s members at 14 train-operating companies walked out once again in their nine-month dispute over wages, jobs and conditions.

RMT is currently balloting workers on a new pay offer from state-run infrastructure firm Network Rail, but the dispute with employers’ body the Rail Delivery Group is “stuck in deadlock,” Mr Lynch said, after it threatened to make the union negotiate with each employer separately.