Network Rail workers are to stage a 24-hour strike from 5pm on bank holiday Monday in a row over pay.
The UK-wide action will see signallers, maintenance staff and station workers, walk out from 25 May on the busy holiday weekend.
It follows a decisive vote for action from RMT union members and will be the first UK-wide rail strike in 20 years.
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin condemned the strike and said Network Rail had made a "fair offer".
"Rail passengers will not thank the unions for inflicting this unnecessary disruption," he added.
The RMT insists the main impact on passengers will be felt on Tuesday 26 May, but the action is expected to hit what is traditionally a busy Bank Holiday travel period for millions of rail users.
Network Rail has previously said it will do anything possible to keep services going if strikes go ahead.
The union said the latest pay proposals from Network Rail fell "well short" of what is required to maintain living standards and job security for nearly 16,000 staff.
Members have rejected a four-year deal worth £500 per worker this year, followed by three years of increases matching inflation as well as a no compulsory redundancy commitment to December 2016.
Network Rail runs and develops Britain's rail tracks as well as looking after signalling, bridges and tunnels. They also run stations in the UK, including 10 in London.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said Network Rail had left members "with no option but to move to a rolling programme of industrial action".
The union had a "massive mandate for action" from members angered at "attacks on their standards of living and their job security", he said.
Network Rail's proposals were "wholly inadequate" and failed to recognise the "massive pressures staff are working under to keep services running safely at a time when the company is generating profits of £1bn", he added.
The action is the first major industrial relations challenge for the new Conservative government, which is committed to tightening the rules on strike ballots - particularly covering essential public services.