Yet another strike virtually halted ScotRail services at the weekend - and there is fresh misery to come on the railways in the days ahead.
More walkouts are due on November 5, 7 and 9.
RMT members took part in the 24-hour action on Saturday, after the union rejected a 5% salary increase and a £500 payment as "not enough".
ScotRail has described the union demands as unaffordable.
Trains were only running on three routes in the central belt on Saturday, with all other services cancelled - meaning that the north-east was once again cut off from the rest of Scotland.
RMT Scottish organiser Mick Hogg told the BBC that, with inflation running at more than 10%, the pay offer was "nowhere near" acceptable.
Strike action to continue
He said that strike action would continue "as long as it takes" to secure a better deal, and urged the Scottish Government, which has owned ScotRail since April, to intervene.
"The Scottish Government should take control of the situation and instruct ScotRail to get round the negotiating table and hammer out a deal," added Mr Hogg.
ScotRail said it had worked hard to improve the offer in a way that that was affordable to the Scottish public, given the financial challenges.
The Scottish Government said it respected the workers' right to strike, but that the latest offer should have been put to the union members.
The Scottish Conservatives described the strike as "selfish". Transport spokesman Graham Simpson added: "The militant RMT union is holding the whole country to ransom and, for every day that this chaos continues, ordinary travellers and small businesses will continue to suffer."
ScotRail's RMT members previously went on strike on October 10. An overtime and rest day working ban, also put in place by the union, has led to cancellations across the rail network over the past fortnight.
Separate dispute
The dispute is separate from one involving RMT members employed by Network Rail which is set to lead to more 24-hour strikes on November 5, 7 and 9.
This latter nationwide action does not involve ScotRail staff. However, the company says it will have a major knock-on effect on the train operator's ability to provide services as the RMT action will involve Network Rail staff in Scotland.
As a result, there will once again be no services north of the central belt on the strike days - leaving north-east passengers and businesses yet again counting the cost of this continued disruption.