RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said.

“Just as the private train companies are closing down services due to adverse weather they are publishing fare increases which massively outstrip wages and which will once again hit low to medium earners where it hurts. The great private rail rip off continues.

“Today's disruption to services is worsened by a billion-pound backlog on essential maintenance and renewals, coupled with cuts to staffing, which leave Britain's railways constantly on the edge. Meanwhile the train operators are draining out cash through profiteering and exploitation of passengers and that's money that could be invested in infrastructure, staffing and capacity.

“The link between privatisation, high fares and the repeated disruption to services could not be clearer. Public ownership is the only solution to this outrageous racketeering that forces the British people to pay the highest fares in Europe to travel on overcrowded, under-staffed and unreliable services.”