Over 40,000 rail employees will walk out on Wednesday following a dispute over pay, jobs and working conditions.
Members of the RMT trade union at more than a dozen operators including Network Rail, Chiltern Railways and Avanti West Coast will strike.
CrossCountry Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, West Midlands Trains and GTR are the other rail companies affected.
This is the latest addition to the country’s travel woes, with flight and road disruptions still very much ongoing.
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the operators, said: "Sadly, these RMT strikes will upset passengers' summer plans, undermine businesses and upend the industry's recovery, making it more difficult to fund a settlement.
"We want to give our people an increase in pay, but we have a responsibility to do that by making reasonable changes to long outdated working practices - already successfully introduced in some parts of the network - which will improve punctuality, reliability and passenger experience.
Rail operators have warned that disturbance will likely continue into the following morning – 28 July – as normality resumes.
Transport for London workers will not walk out but the industrial action is expected to cause disruptions on the underground lines that share tracks with Network Rail.
Members of drivers’ union Aslef at eight train companies are expected to strike on 30 July, while RMT has scheduled further walkouts for 18 and 20 August.