Rail users faced fresh travel headaches today as they were hit by the latest strike by conductors.

Arriva Trains Northern said 55 per cent of services will run during the action by members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.

It is the first of a new set of ten 24-hour strikes by conductors over pay - the union has rejected a four per cent pay rise.

Hourly services were running between Bradford For-ster Square and Leeds, Skip-ton and Leeds, and Ilkley and Leeds.

Station staff who are members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association started a 48-hour strike yesterday, but Arriva said this would not affect rail services.

Ray Price, managing director of Arriva Trains North-ern, said the RMT should hold a fresh ballot of its members and warned that conductors would lose £2,500 each.

RMT's general secretary Bob Crow said Arriva awarded a pay rise of 18 per cent to train drivers and improved their conditions and holidays, but expected other staff to accept a worse deal.

"The time has come for Arriva to understand that it can end this dispute by getting around the table with us and hammering out a fair pay deal," he said.