More chaos is expected on the railway across Wiltshire today as rail workers begin their third and final day of walkouts this week.

Saturday marks the third and final day of the national rail strike as workers protest for better work conditions and an increased salary.

Only a fifth of services nationwide will run and half of the lines will be closed, with operators telling passengers they should only travel by train if necessary and to check their journey in advance.

Services across Britain will primarily be restricted to main lines, but even those will only be open between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

That means first trains will leave later and last trains will be much earlier than normal.

GWR recently released a temporary timetable for the weekend's strike, which meant that only trains to Bristol, London and Oxford would be planned to go ahead.

On Saturday the operator is aiming to provide about 30 per cent of its usual timetabled services, and about 50 per cent on Sunday with a later start-up than usual and the need to rebalance the fleet to provide full services again from Monday.

Where trains are able to run, they are expected to be extremely busy and replacement bus services are not able to be provided.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has not ruled out further strike action this summer, and said the RMT will decide after discussions next week.

Responding to a statement by Network Rail to Sky News Breakfast about the progress of talks, he said: "We’ve got to be very cautious about what they call progress.

"They may be progressing their agenda, but it doesn’t mean that our members are going to accept those changes, just because the company wants them, so we’ve got to work that problem through with them."

He added: "So it’s likely unless we get a lot of movement provided by the Government that the companies can change their stance that there will be more action, yes.”

He continued: "We’ve not named dates. We’re going to review where we are in the discussions next week, and then we will decide if we need to take more action.

"We have to get two weeks’ notice of strikes anyway, that’s the legislation, so there won’t be any strikes in the next couple of weeks, but we’ll decide that. But we won’t hesitate to use more industrial action if we can’t reach an agreement or if the companies carry through their threats to make people redundant."