Last-ditch talks to avoid more strikes at Liverpool Street

More than 150,000 rail passengers will have to wait until the last minute before knowing if they have a service on Thursday and Friday.

Strike action halted virtually all National Express East Anglia services into Liverpool Street station last Thursday and Friday - and six more days of stoppages are planned on consecutive Thursdays and Fridays; 6 and 7, 13 and 14, and 20 and 21 August.

Union bosses are to meet management to try to prevent further walkouts - but negotiations will not begin until tomorrow, leaving little time before the start of the next 48-hour walkout, which begins on Thursday morning.

The industry's two most powerful unions, Aslef and the RMT, have joined forces in the dispute over pay and working conditions.

■A month of disruption begins today on Arriva Crosscountry, which serves more of Britain than any other operator, in separate industrial action ordered by the RMT - also in a dispute over pay and working conditions.