The week-long strike, which began yesterday, will create havoc for millions of commuters. Credit: Bru-nO from Pixabay.

UK is facing rail travel chaos as workers of various rail unions have started a fresh round of demonstration over a demand for pay hike.

The week-long strike, which began yesterday, is set to create havoc for millions of commuters who use the rail service for reaching their workplaces, reported Reuters.

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The workers are demanding a wage increase to cope up with their expenses amid high inflation that reached nearly 40-year highs in recent times.

Network Rail tweeted: “Due to strikes, there will be significantly reduced train services across the railway until Sunday 8 January.”

It also added: “Trains will be busier and will likely start later and finish earlier. There will be no services at all in some places.”

Meanwhile, the UK government has expressed its inability to offer public sector workers a hike that suits the ongoing inflation, triggering workers to continue their disgruntle, which is dubbed as a ‘winter of discontent’.  

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The country is currently facing repeated strikes, which are found to be similar with industrial clashes that overwhelmed the UK in the late 1970s.

UK transport minister Mark Harper was quoted by Times Radio as saying: “The only way you get a deal sorted out is to get the trade unions and employers around the negotiating table and not on the picket line and that’s what I want to see happen.”

According to RMT rail union general secretary Mick Lynch, the government looks okay with the continuity of the strikes.

Lynch said: “The government is blocking the union’s attempts to reach a negotiated settlement with the rail employers.

“We have worked with the rail industry to reach successful negotiated settlements ever since privatisation in 1993. And we have achieved deals across the network in 2021 and 2022 where the DfT has no involvement.

“Yet in this dispute, there is an unprecedented level of ministerial interference, which is hamstringing rail employers from being able to negotiate a package of measures with us, so we can settle this dispute.”