Thousands of Eurofans who hoped to be able to attend the final of the Eurovision Song Contest live tonight in the English city of Liverpool, are going to be left with the desire for a train strike that threatens to create chaos in the port city.

As the Daily Mail reports, members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union have walked out on 14 train operators across England in an escalation of a long-running dispute over their wages.

The strike follows a protest by train drivers in the Aslef union, which has brought services to a standstill, with parts of England without trains all day.

Many citizens have criticized unions for choosing the Eurovision weekend, when the UK receives thousands of extra visitors, to stage the strike.

“It is very sad that they have taken the decision to go on strike in order to cause maximum disruption to working people and to the Eurovision Song Contest that is being organized for Ukraine,” says a testimony collected by the Daily Mail.

“One of the first things Eurovision visitors will encounter is the rail strike – welcome to the world pounding broken Britain,” says another testimonial.

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch has written to Transport Secretary Mark Harper to call for an industry summit of unions, company and government, with an independent mediator if necessary, to end the 'chaos' on the railways and settle the “toxic” rail dispute.