Responding to the company's unilateral announcement that it was to launch a new defined-benefit scheme, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said:

"We are not prepared to tolerate a worsening of pensions, not least after all the money that's been extracted from the industry since privatisation.

"We have called for further industry-wide discussion, but what we have been given is an attempt to impose an inferior pension scheme without any discussion or agreement.

"This isn't about widening choice, it's about undermining the existing final-salary scheme and a cynical attempt to undermine the Railway Pensions Commission before anyone has had a chance to discuss its findings.

"I am in no doubt that if the company persists in imposing a worse pension scheme there will be a national rail strike."