Rail passengers are set to face more Christmas travel misery as a fresh wave of strikes were announced on Wednesday night. Two 24-hour strikes are planned for New Year's Eve and December 27.

The companies involved in the strikes, South Western Railway and Greater Anglia, are the same firms who were this week revealed to have denied customers the chance to buy cheap tickets for the Christmas break.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union on South Western Railway will walk out for 24 hours on December 31 and on Greater Anglia on December 27 in their ongoing dispute over the role of guards.

The news came after the RMT met Transport Secretary Chris Grayling in a bid to resolve the dispute, but said there were "contradictory messages and confusion" from the minister and his department.

The RMT claims it was told that the Government is not opposed to a second person on trains and that it was up to the union and employers to reach an agreement and was offered further talks to discuss its concerns about driver-only trains.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that within an hour of the meeting finishing, he received a "contradictory letter" from Mr Grayling asking that the union accepts the principle of driver-controlled operation.