MILLIONS of passengers face two days of travel chaos next week after the biggest rail union announced the first national rail strike for a decade.

More than 15,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union will walk out for 24 hours from 6.30pm next Tuesday in disputes over pay and pensions.

The union has timed the stoppage to cause maximum disruption. Commuters will be left stranded on Tuesday night because many services will be cancelled well before the strike is due to start.

Only 10 per cent of the 19,000 daily trains on Britain’s national rail network are likely to operate next Wednesday. Tube services will also be affected. Network Rail said that 75 per cent of its signalling staff were due to strike. It has been training other staff to take their place but they are likely to be able to handle only a fraction of the normal services.

London Underground said that the strike by 7,500 station, maintenance and signalling staff, as well as a proportion of drivers, would cause “severe disruption”. Several lines were likely to close completely.

The Rail Passengers Council said: “This is terrible news for passengers.”

The union accused Network Rail of refusing to negotiate on pensions after the company announced it was closing its final salary scheme to new entrants.

RMT members at Network Rail voted by 58 per cent in favour of industrial action. Bob Crow, the RMT general secretary, said that the six- figure bonuses awarded to Network Rail directors last month had hardened attitudes within the union.

“The directors’ decision to go ahead with awarding themselves telephone-number bonuses for ‘financial efficiency’ will be seen by thousands of loyal NR employees as a grubby reward for pulling the plug on their decent pension scheme.”

Mr Crow said the strike on London Underground would go ahead unless agreement was reached on a 35-hour, four-day week and a substantial pay rise. A spokesman for the Strategic Rail Authority said: “Every time that Bob Crow appears, passengers and taxpayers should be afraid, they should be very afraid.”

John Armitt, Network Rail’s chief executive, said: “Neither we, nor the public, can or will understand why they are threatening to bring the country to a standstill when we have offered concession after concession.

“Network Rail will now consider all options to protect the public from this unnecessary strike, including legal action.”

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