Second rail strike brings more misery to the journey home

Rail commuters face a nightmare journey home again tonight after the start of a 48-hour strike closed down busy routes to and from Liverpool Street station.

Many National Express East Anglia passengers had to travel across country by car or bus to use alternative trains into the capital.

Tomorrow 150,000 passengers face more misery in the second half of the strike.

The company only managed to run a little over 100 trains today compared with the usual 1,800 and it expects to run the same service tomorrow.

Routes from Stansted, Southend Victoria, Colchester and Norwich were reduced to one train an hour, and pickets were on duty outside the main stations, including Liverpool Street, and train depots.

Union bosses say they will increase strike action next week and "lock down" the entire East Anglia network in the dispute over pay and working conditions.

The action started last week and two more stoppages are scheduled for next Thursday and Friday and 20 to 21 August. The Aslef and RMT unions have joined forces in the dispute. Next week a third, the TSSA, will get involved.

Bob Crow, the RMT leader, said his members had shown they were "solid, angry and determined".

The rail company apologised to passengers and condemned the unions' "unrealistic" pay demands.