And more than 500 ships' officers on P&O ferries operating around the British Isles were also understood to have opted for strikes in a dispute over pay. Other rail staff warned of stoppages both on the national rail system and shipping companies.Elsewhere some 200 train drivers at Eurotunnel, which transports cars and their passengers across the channel, are today expected to press for a ballot on industrial action in a dispute over representation.Signs of growing industrial unrest in the transport industry came as the official Labour Force Survey showed union membership had increased by 100,000 to 7.3 million workers - the first rise since the figures were compiled by the survey in 1989. The statistics also showed for the first time that a greater proportion of non-manual employees were union members than manual workers.Meanwhile, signal workers threatened a repeat of the highly damaging campaign of 24-hour walk outs which crippled British Rail six years ago. In a turn-out of around 75 per cent, the workers voted narrowly for action, but it is thought that the RMT union will urge Railtrack to resume talks.The union is protesting over a pay offer which Railtrack says is worth 9 per cent. Representatives of the signal staff, however, point out that the offer only increases basic pay by 5 per cent - the rest consolidates existing additional payments into salary.As French air traffic controllers staged their 24 hours strike, passengers were warned that disruption to flights could continue today and that delays may occur on other routes flying over France. A spokeswoman for British Airways said the airline was trying to switch some passengers to Eurostar, the cross-channel rail service.

The carrier was also trying to arrange for some travellers to switch to larger aircraft flying to destinations near France for transfer overland. The French strike was called by controllers in protest at European Union plans to reorganise their service which they believe will lead to privatisation.The ships' officers union Numast was today expected to reveal votes for strike action at P&O's five ferry companies. Numast officials said officers were protesting over management's decision to award increases broadly in line with the inflation rate of 1.2 per cent and 1.4 per cent.At Eurotunnel members of the traindrivers' union Aslef are expected to vote on industrial action in protest at the company's decision to offer an exclusive negotiating deal to the Transport and General Workers' Union. Aslef claims that more than 220 of the 270 drivers are its members and thus form a separate bargaining unit.. Two commuter trains narrowly avoided a head-on crash after one passed a red light at up to 80mph on Sunday.

Two commuter trains narrowly avoided a head-on crash after one passed a red light at up to 80mph on Sunday. The 19.02 from Liverpool Street, London, to Colchester was said to have passed the red signal at 7.18pm near Ilford, Essex. A signalman at the Liverpool Street control centre spotted the danger and sent a message to the driver's cab.The driver performed an emergency stop and the train came to a halt 200m from the front of the 18.30 train from Southend Victoria to Liverpool Street.No one was injured. Both trains were re-routed to nearby Seven Kings station where passengers changed trains to complete their journeys.A Railtrack spokeswoman said the normal line speed in the area was 80mph but it was not clear how fast the trains were travelling at the time.The driver of the Colchester service has been suspended pending an investigation by Railtrack and the train operator, First Great Eastern, which ran both services.The spokeswoman said: "The signalling equipment was tested and quickly eliminated as a cause of the incident.. A close ally of Gordon Brown criticised the Chancellor yesterday for trying to suppress a public debate on whether Britain should join the single currency. A close ally of Gordon Brown criticised the Chancellor yesterday for trying to suppress a public debate on whether Britain should join the single currency. Alan Donnelly, former leader of the Labour group in the European parliament, raised the stakes in the cabinet battle over the euro by claiming that senior Labour figures backed his demand for an open debate about the merits of British membership.He warned that the Government's reluctance to start the debate before the next general election could harm its prospects of winning a referendum on the euro. "If we leave it until two months before a likely referendum, in my view it is simply too late to get the message across to the British people," he told a press conference at Westminster.He cited Labour's defeat in last year's elections to the European Parliament, when the party adopted Mr Brown's cautious approach to the euro."I think that there's now such compelling evidence for Britain's membership of the single currency, we shouldn't give the impression that we are nervous or unsure about this issue," he said. Mr Donnelly, whose intervention angered the Treasury, challenged Mr Brown's refusal to provide "a running commentary" on whether Britain is meeting the Government's five economic tests.