The wider knock-on impact harms businesses suffering from reduced footfall and staffing. It causes disruption to the health service due to missing nurses and cancelled appointments, some of which could be life saving. And it harms families who are unable to pick up children from school or visit loved ones.The strike forms part of a wider picture of misery when it comes to British transport. Airports are beset by horrendous delays and cancellations owing to reduced staffing. And the roads are proving to be increasingly empty as drivers find themselves increasingly disinclined to fill up their cars given the astronomical cost of fuel.

Given the primary duty of a Secretary of State for Transport is to keep Britain moving, it is time to call into question Grant Shapps’s suitability to hold the office which he is charged with. Mr Shapps has singularly failed to make any headway whatsoever on any of the issues outlined above. His attempts to shift the blame on to the trade unions will not wash with the general public, even given the widespread opposition to the industrial action it is carrying out.

Given the scale of the damage, estimated by one think tank to be approaching £100m, this is a national crisis that requires solving on an urgent basis. Dozens of meetings between the unions and Ministers have achieved nothing.

And while Mr Shapps is correct in saying Britain’s railways need modernising away from the antiquated relic it currently resembles, it is his responsibility to manage this in such a way as to bring the industry along for the ride.

If Mr Shapps is unable to do this then he should make way for someone who has the leadership to do so. Otherwise the nation will remain stuck in the slow lane.

If Grant Shapps cannot solve the rail strike crisis then he must resign - The Yorkshire Post says