Rail strikes: Millions caught up in travel chaos with Brits told to STAY HOME as week of travel hell starts NOW

MILLIONS of commuters have been caught up in travel chaos today as Brits are told to stay home.

Many train services have been cancelled with "shortage of train crew" given among the reasons ahead of a national walkout of rail workers.

And a number of train companies are running emergency timetables today, warning people to only travel if necessary.

It comes ahead of Britain's biggest rail strike for 30 years in which 40,000 workers will walk out over job cuts, pay and conditions from tomorrow.

Last minute talks between the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union and rail bosses are continuing this morning.

But Treasury chief secretary Simon Clarke said today it is likely the rail strike will go ahead and insisted it is not up to the Government to resolve the dispute.

And Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said yesterday the strike will be disastrous for passengers, adding: "It is no way to behave on the railway. There is no advantage to this."

The strike has been designed to cause maximum disruption, meaning six days of chaos this week.

But NHS oncologist Professor Robert Thomas said the strike will lead to cancer deaths.

He told Good Morning Britain: "There's 120,000 on chemotherapy and a similar amount on radiotherapy. It's well established that delays will have a 20 per cent reduction in benefit of cancer treatment. 

"I think it's selfish and inappropriate. Oncology is at breaking point at the moment due to lockdown and difficulty recruiting.

"This will lead to loss of life. Maybe not now but in the next few months.

"It's going to lead to considerable delays and considerable distress.

"If it's going to cause loss of life you have got to ask if they have the moral authority to make the choice of going on strike at this time."

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said rail staff have been left with "no other option".

And RMT boss Mike Lynch has previously said he will run the campaign for as long as it takes to get a settlement, potentially creating havoc for more than six months.

Meanwhile, teachers, binmen and posties have threatened to join the walkout - causing chaos unseen since the 1970s.

A reduced timetable this week will operate just 20 per cent of train services on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

And a map of misery has illustrated how just half of the country's network will be open.

Network Rail said that no passenger services will serve locations such as Penzance in Cornwall, Bournemouth in Dorset, Swansea in South Wales, Holyhead in North Wales, Chester in Cheshire and Blackpool, Lancashire.

There will also be no passenger trains running north from Glasgow or Edinburgh.

And the last train from Edinburgh to London on the East Coast Main Line will stop running at lunchtime at 1.30pm.

Mr Lynch, who said workers have been "robbed of wages", told Sky News yesterday:

He said they want a seven per cent pay rise.

The average salary of a train driver is £54,000 per year - a seven per cent rise on that would see them raking in £57,780.

The strike is set to cause chaos for millions, from workers to holidaymakers and parents.

More than half of services to Glastonbury Festival in Pilton, Somerset have been cancelled.

It means tens of thousands will have to find alternative routes to its 50th event.

And last week mum Marta Kotlarek told how she faces a 180-mile drive to get her sons to school for their GCSE exams.