Hundreds of Yorkshire railway workers started a four-day strike today and predicted their action would hit services across the district.

Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union have voted for strike action over pay.

Nationally 9,000 railway maintenance workers have walked out, including around 400 in the Bradford area, says the RMT.

Train operators say the walkout will have no immediate effect on services as contractors are in place to ensure minimal disruption.

But a spokesman for the RMT in the Yorkshire region warned that the Leeds-Bradford, Airedale and Wharfedale lines were all likely to suffer disruption until Monday night.

The strikers are maintenance workers, employed to tackle signal faults and track faults.

"It is inevitable this will have an effect on services but we do not know where the problems will occur -- this will become apparent over the weekend and right up to Monday night," the RMT spokesman said.

"We don't like to see problems affecting the railways but this is a last resort to bring the problems home.

"We hope it won't be necessary to take any further action and we can get some sensible figures out of the company."

The workers are in dispute with nine engineering firms which hold maintenance contracts with Railtrack.

The local firms are Jarvis Facilities, Jarvis Fastline and Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance.

Union bosses are planning a week-long strike later this month if the dispute is not resolved.

"We are not anticipating any problems and services will be running as normal today," said a spokesman from Railtrack.

"Only a third of the maintenance workers contracted to us belong to the union and our contractors have assured us that there are contingency plans in place to ensure minimal disruption," he added.

The union is seeking a pay rise, moves towards a 35-hour week, more sociable hours, paid meal breaks and job security.

Great North Eastern Railways said services were not expected to be disrupted.

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