Engineers on South West Trains (SWT) will be balloted on taking industrial action in protest at a 7.6% pay increase that the company has imposed on thousands of its staff.
The engineers are members of Amicus, whose leader, Sir Ken Jackson, earlier this week attacked the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union for subjecting the public to "unnecessary" strikes. Sir Ken said yesterday: "If the RMT continues to treat people like cattle they should expect a kick. The situation the public is facing on the railways is an absolute disgrace."
Seventeen members of his union who work at SWT will receive ballot papers next week on whether to take industrial action over pay, one of the issues the RMT is striking over.
An Amicus official said the workers were willing to go to arbitration but the offer was withdrawn so the union had decided to hold a ballot.
The RMT is planning a 48-hour strike against SWT later this month after staging a series of walkouts this year that have crippled services in the south-east and on lines into London's Waterloo station.
The union is also planning strikes against Arriva Trains Northern in a separate dispute over pay, although talks are continuing to try to avert the action.
Hopes of a breakthrough in the pay dispute, which has led to the cancellation of one in four trains in Scotland, were dashed last night when talks ended without agreement after 11 hours.
ScotRail's acting managing director, Nick Brown, said that he was "extremely disappointed" that no deal had been struck with Aslef, the union representing train drivers who are refusing to work their rest days.
He said: "Our original offer of 3% with no strings attached still stands and we have improved on that with some flexibility measures.
"We have had some good discussions with the unions about those today, but at the end of the day their feeling is that they have to reject them.
"That's incredibly disappointing to us, but unfortunately they have exceedingly high expectations which we are unable to meet."
Kevin Lindsay, district secretary of Aslef, said he would recommend the rejection of ScotRail's offer to his union's executive committee.
Meanwhile, a problem on a busy commuter line added to rail passengers' problems today.
The collapse of some overhead wires outside King's Cross station in London meant disruption to Thameslink services.
The beleaguered transport secretary, Stephen Byers, has challenged rail passengers to use the next general election to judge whether the government's promises of real improvements to the network have been met.
Mr Byers is banking on successful small-scale projects to convince rail passengers he can improve services, it emerged today.
The minister admitted that "certain aspects" of the rail network had got worse under Labour and said he would be held accountable for improving the railways at the next election.
The chairman of the strategic rail authority, Richard Bowker, is expected to earmark £430m for quick, local improvements.
Passengers and rail staff will be asked to nominate schemes such as extra rush-hour services, new car parks and stations.
The Transport and General Workers Union general secretary, Bill Morris, backed the call of the Aslef leader, Mick Rix, for a return to national pay bargaining on the railways as a way of ending the wave of disputes.
Mr Rix argued that the system of separate pay deals for different companies left rail workers continually trying to catch up with, or improve on, the conditions secured by their colleagues elsewhere in the industry.
Mr Morris told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Mick Rix floated a very interesting position this morning, suggesting we should get back to national bargaining, which would stop leap-frogging because of the fragmentation of the different train operating companies.
"I think that should be explored and I think the Department of Trade and Industry would have a role there."
