Most of Britain’s rail network ground to a halt today as members of the RMT union kickstarted a fresh wave of strikes. The rail industry says only 20 per cent of services are running, and none at all in much of rural England, Scotland and Wales. Any last-minute hope of halting the industrial action was extinguished last night after RMT members, demanding inflation-busting pay rises, voted to reject the “substandard” new pay offer made by National Rail of a 5 per cent wage rise this year and 4 per cent in 2023.