BEFORE we arrive at this year’s winter of discontent, we have, sadly, to begin our journey at the summer of discontent before changing later on at the autumn of discontent. It’s going to be a ghost train-ride.

In just 11 days’ time more than 40,000 members of the RMT rail union are set to stage a strike with two more planned later that week. Although each one will last 24 hours, the disruption will run into the following days, meaning it will last for the best part of a week.

Those walking out will include Network Rail signallers and engineers as well as staff from 13 of England’s 15 train operating companies, including Avanti West Coast.

ScotRail has warned the biggest industrial action for a generation will result in a “limited service operating, if at all” north of the border.

Since the pandemic began in early 2020, the Treasury has poured £16 billion into keeping the rail network going. But the tap is now being turned off and, with passenger numbers just three-quarters of what they were before Covid struck, the industry is facing tough choices on how to adapt.

The nub of RMT’s complaint is, given the cost-of-living crisis, there is a dire need for a pay rise for its members plus there is the threat of job losses as the industry adapts to new travel patterns.

But they are not alone. Members of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, have also voted to strike over pay while the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association has begun balloting its members.

Manuel Cortes, the TSSA’s General Secretary, warned of synchronised industrial action. “We could be seeing a summer of discontent across our railways,” he declared, adding: “We are preparing for all options, including co-ordinated strike action.”

During PMQs, Boris Johnson hit out at the RMT’s “reckless and wanton strike,” while Keir Starmer was rather reticent about it. Labour has been in something of a quandary with some frontbenchers equivocating while others are openly supportive of the planned industrial action.

But the Labour leader’s office has since made clear: “The strikes shouldn't go ahead,” and urged UK ministers to work with Network Rail and the unions to avoid industrial action. A no-brainer.

In Scotland as passengers faced cuts to rail services, Scottish minsters agreed a “breakthrough” 5% pay deal, which hopefully will end the row, but it has caused a backlash from public sector workers also wanting a wage increase.

A wave of summer strikes is threatened as thousands of council workers from cleaners and binmen to care home and school staff could walk out with unions preparing strike ballots over a 2.2% offer.

And now, Unison, the country’s largest public services union with more than 1m members, has warned it will ballot them if a pay offer is below the rate of inflation. The UK Government has pencilled in a 3% rise, well below the current 9% CPI rate.

The PM has warned of a “wage-price spiral” if pay packets increase in line with inflation, which he fears would entrench the cost-of-living crisis.

But, not surprisingly, the TUC branded Boris’s remarks “nonsense,” stressing: “British workers are suffering the longest wage squeeze in more than 200 years. They urgently need more money in their pockets.”

Some politicians on the Right have accused the unions of holding the country to ransom. There must, they argue, be a social dimension to this given that any strike action will impact on all communities, which have had to endure more than two years of hardship thanks to the pandemic.

There are calls for a minimum service obligation on the railways, as happens in other countries, because they’re deemed an essential service.

This would mean it would be unlawful to take industrial action unless a certain number of staff were working. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, has already highlighted a promise in the 2019 Conservative manifesto about minimum service levels during strikes.

Concerns are growing over what a wave of strikes could mean for the already pressured supply chains.

If all of this were not bad enough, come January, hard-pressed travellers will be facing a rail fares’ hike in double digits. This is because those for 2023 are set by what the RPI rate of inflation is in July. It’s already at 11.1%.

But Transport Focus, the industry watchdog, helpfully pointed out: “The Government is not tied to the July figure…It’s very much a political decision.”

Of course, if the rail strikes go ahead, as seems likely, then more people will take to their cars. But hold on. This week saw the average cost of filling a typical family car top £100.

In the spring, Rishi Sunak cut fuel duty by 5p a litre but, given the ever increasing costs, growing calls are being made for a more sizeable cut because motorists hand over 53p per litre in duty to the Treasury as well as the extra VAT levy of 20%. As prices go up, the Chancellor rakes in lots more of our cash.

The rail strikes could also have damaging effects on people wanting to get away on that longed-for summer holiday they haven’t had for three years. But hold on.

Hundreds of members of the GMB and Unite unions at Heathrow Airport, who run ground operations and check-in desks for British Airways, are being balloted on strike action over pay, which could happen just in time for the peak school-holiday period.

Getting travel tickets through the post might also become a problem as tens of thousands of trade unionists from Unite and the Communication Workers Union are about to be balloted over Royal Mail’s plans to remove hundreds of delivery managers.

As we travel on our unhappy economic journey, some hopeful souls might find comfort in being captained by those twin titans of statecraft: Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon.

This coming week, Captain Boris is expected to set out his Panglossian plan to fly us through the coming 18 months of turbulence. What could possibly go wrong?