YORK railway station - normally packed with tourists, stags, hens, shoppers, couples, families and football fans on a Saturday - was almost deserted today as strikes caused the worst rail disruption of the year so far.

Members of four trade unions - the RMT, Aslef, Unite and the TSSA - were striking for 24 hours, with Aslef members mounting a picket line outside the station.

Passengers have been advised to try to travel only if necessary today, and electronic signs at the station mid-morning showed only three departures in over an hour - the 11.50 Transpennine Express to Huddersfield, the 12.02 LNER train to London Kings Cross and the 12.59 LNER to London.

Signs said LNER would be running an 'extremely limited service,' with none running north of York.

The timing of the strikes coincides with the London Marathon tomorrow, leaving participants struggling to reach the capital for the run.

Union leaders apologised for the disruption caused by the mass walkouts but said they had been left with no choice - as Network Rail accused them of a "huge own goal".

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch, speaking from a picket line at Euston station, was pressed on how the union would "justify" causing disruption to a "major charity event".

He told BBC Breakfast that union members did not want to cause the public difficulties and said it was the Tory party conference that was being targeted, rather than the marathon.

Asked whether he would apologise to the public, he said: "Absolutely. We don't want to inconvenience the public and we're really sorry that that's happening.

"But the Government has brought this dispute on. They (put) the challenges down to us, to cut our jobs, to cut our pensions and to cut our wages against inflation."

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, also offered apologies for the disruption caused by the strikes, but said his members were increasingly angry at the lack of progress in the dispute.

"We don't want to be on strike but this dispute will continue until the Government lifts the shackles from the train companies," he said.

Network Rail chief negotiator Tim Shoveller described the strikes as a "huge own goal" that would result in "less money to spend improving the railway".

Speaking to Times Radio Breakfast, he said: "To target leisure travellers, as appears to be happening today and again next Saturday, is really frustrating. And it's just a huge own goal.

"The profit is purely an accounting measure. And that all goes back into the railway, every single penny goes back into the railway.

"In fact, a tragedy of the strikes now is that because of the costs of the strike, we'll actually have less money to spend improving the railway because of the compensation and costs that we'll have from the strike days."