Angry commuters have taken to social media to share their frustration over recent rail strikes and walkouts.

Around 300,000 Southern Railway passengers told of their “nightmares” they have endured, as Transport Secretary Chris Grayling refused to rule out taking action to prevent future strikes, like the one which brought all Southern Railway services to a halt today.

Aslef, the Rail, Maritime and Transport union and Southern felt they were under pressure to settle disputes over driver-only trains and changes to the role of guards.

Aslef members protested at the picket lines outside stations at the start of the 48-hour walkout, with another strike planned for Friday.

All of Southern's 2,242 weekday services were cancelled, and commuters are planning a protest outside the Department for Transport on Thursday evening.

Mr Grayling continued to blame the unions for the months of disruption to Southern services and urged them to sit down with the company to resolve the long-running disputes.

But Aslef and the RMT attacked the Government, saying ministers had been preventing Southern from negotiating properly.

Jim Boyden, a management consultant, from Shoreham, West Sussex, is frustrated that we will have to stay in a London hotel until Thursday because of the lack of trains between his home and Victoria.

Mr Boyden, 38, shared a photo of his one-year-old son Zac on social media and told Southern Rail: “Because of your strike, I am unable to travel home until Thursday and read him and his sister a story.

"Because of your strike, we will not discover what animal is hiding in his favourite book tonight, or tomorrow night.”

RMT leader Mick Cash said: "Instead of taking action to resolve the disputes on Southern Rail the Transport Secretary has chosen to jack up the rhetoric with his threat to ban strikes and to strip rail workers of their fundamental human rights.

"Threatening to stop workers from taking action to protect passenger and staff safety is a recipe for carnage on our rail services.

"Private companies like Southern would be given the green light to rip up the safety rule book and to run riot with lethal consequences.

"RMT remains on standby for serious talks and instead of throwing out more threats and more attacks on the front-line rail workers Mr Grayling should be getting out of his bunker, getting a grip on the situation and dragging his contractors back to the negotiating table."

Mr Grayling said he would have a "careful look" at how to deal with the situation when the dispute ends.

Commuters travelling on alternative rail services from the south faced even more delays, as a signal failure at Brixton meant the Victoria line was suspended between the south London Underground station and Victoria.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said: “Earlier this year Peter Wilkinson, the £265,000 a year director of rail passenger services, said on a public platform that the aim of the DfT is to force train drivers - men and women he derisively referred to as 'muppets' - 'out of my industry'.

“Mr Wilkinson said he was determined to provoke industrial confrontation and, indeed, was looking forward to 'punch-ups' with trade unions.

“The strikes this week are not, whatever Mr Grayling tries to suggest, politically motivated. We have a trade dispute with GTR/Southern, and only a poor government would seek to spin it any other way."

A spokesman for Southern Railway said the strikes are “wholly unjustified” and they want to talk to Aslef to find a way to resolve the dispute.

Greater Anglia trains have also cancelled at least 30 trains with many more delayed due to broken-down trains and signal failures.