Rail strikes affecting all of Britain are taking place from today (Tuesday, June 21) with further action to come on Wednesday, June 23 and Saturday, June 25.

Hundreds of thousands of people are being affected by this, especially those who would usually use trains to travel to work.

Many platforms have been left extremely quiet or completely deserted as approximately 80% of trains were cancelled.

The question now remains on if the pay dispute between Network Rail and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will see similar incidents occurring later in the year, or even as soon as next month.

Echo: Many services have been cancelled due to the strikes (PA)Many services have been cancelled due to the strikes (PA)

Will there be rail strike dates in July 2022?

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said Network Rail had offered a 2% pay rise with the possibility of a further 1% later dependent on efficiency savings.

He told BBC’s Newsnight that Network Rail had “escalated” the dispute during Monday’s talks, saying: “They have issued me a letter saying that there are going to be redundancies starting from July 1.

“So rather than trying to come to an agreement in this dispute, they’ve escalated it by giving us formal notice of redundancy amongst our Network Rail members.”

He warned the dispute could continue for months, adding: “It is clear that the Tory Government, after slashing £4bn of funding from National Rail and Transport for London, has now actively prevented a settlement to this dispute.

“The rail companies have now proposed pay rates that are massively under the relevant rates of inflation, coming on top of the pay freezes of the past few years.

“At the behest of the Government, companies are also seeking to implement thousands of job cuts and have failed to give any guarantee against compulsory redundancies.”

Therefore if the issue over pay is not resolved then we could be seeing plenty of similar incidents over the course of the year.