ASLEF members at eight train operators – Arriva Rail London, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains – are to stage a strike on 30 July.

The union’s general secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘We want an increase in line with the cost of living – we want to be able to buy, in 2022, what we could buy in 2021 – for those members who were, you will remember, the people who moved key workers and goods around the country during the pandemic – who have not had a pay rise since 2019.

‘It’s not unreasonable to ask your employer to make sure you’re not worse off for a third successive year. Especially as the train companies are doing very nicely, thank you, out of Britain’s railways with handsome profits, dividends for shareholders, and big salaries for managers.’

The Department for Transport said: ‘It is very disappointing that, rather than commit to serious dialogue with the industry, ASLEF are first seeking to cause further misery to passengers by joining others in disrupting the rail network.’

The date chosen by ASLEF will mean that travel will be disrupted in the West Midlands during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.