RAIL users in East Lancashire were facing more disruption from today because of a strike by train drivers involved in a long-running pay dispute.

First North Western said the strike, which will last for 48 hours, would "cripple" its services in the North West.

The company usually lays on 1,500 services a day but admitted that only a handful would run during the strike, the third walk-out in recent weeks by members of the drivers' union Aslef.

The company maintained it had made an "extremely good" offer of a 19 per cent pay increase over three years, a deal which it said would be "beyond the dreams" of many workers.

But the union accused the company of trying to impose productivity initiatives which were unacceptable to train drivers.