RAIL workers on the London Liverpool Street line are to be balloted for strike action after unions hit a pay deadlock with operators National Express.

The Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) said its members will be asked whether they want to launch a campaign of strikes after accusing National Express East Anglia of failing to make any significant offer on pay.

The union also called on the Government to strip the troubled firm of its two remaining franchises, National Express East Anglia and the c2c line from Southend to Fenchurch Street, following the nationalisation of National Express’s East Coast line last week.

Speaking of pay talks, general secretary Bob Crow said: “RMT is in no doubt that the failure to make any kind of meaningful pay offer to staff on National Express East Anglia is all about the company trying to milk the franchises that they have left and to make their staff pay for a crisis which was cooked up in the boardroom by senior managers who have now jumped ship.”

The RMT said it was impossible to say when strikes would take place if workers voted to pursue industrial action.

However, National Express has blamed the union for collapsing pay negotiations.

Ellen Rossiter, a spokeswoman for the firm, said: “We are disappointed the union is balloting its members, as we are still in discussions to find an amicable solution to this year’s pay award.”

The RMT said Government ministers had made it clear to the union that if National Express defaulted on the East Coast they would be stripped of their c2c and East Anglia franchises.

Mr Crow added: “We are calling on the Government to stand firm, to get this company off our tracks and to seize the opportunity to begin a long-term programme of renationalising the railways.”

But National Express said there were no legal grounds for removing the other franchises, despite the loss of the East Coast franchise.