British Rail Passengers Advised to ‘Only Travel If Absolutely Necessary’ During Strikes

Undated photo showing people at an almost empty train station in the UK. (Yui Mok/PA Media)

Passengers are urged to plan their journey and “only travel if absolutely necessary” as tens of thousands of rail workers are set to strike again on Thursday and Saturday.

Network Rail, which owns and develops railway infrastructure across Britain, confirmed that only about one-fifth of Britain’s rail network will remain open on strike days, and lines that do open will only be operating from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The days following the strikes will also be affected “due to the knock-on impact of industrial action on shift patterns,” Network Rail said.

The rail strikes, affecting Network Rail and 14 train operating companies, are coordinated by three unions over pay, job, and conditions.

About 40,000 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT) and thousands more members of Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) and Unite are expected to join the action.

The rail strikes are echoed by RMT members at London’s Underground and Overground, who are staging a strike on Friday, and Unite strikes on Friday and Saturday by some 1,600 London bus drivers.

Transport for London has also said they are “strongly encouraging” passengers to “avoid traveling on the Tube and only travel if essential on the rest of the network” all day Friday and Saturday morning.

More Strikes

A number of other strikes are also happening this week and next week, including by Unite members at the UK’s busiest container port, Felixstowe container port, from Aug. 21 to Aug. 28; Unite members at DHL in Scotland and Northern Ireland between Aug. 13 and Aug. 19; Unite members in waste, recycling, and street cleaning in Edinburgh between Aug. 18 and Aug. 30; Unite members working in refuse Newham, London, from Aug. 27 to Aug. 31; Unison members at the AQA exam board on the weekdays from Aug. 17 to Aug. 28; barristers represented by the Criminal Bar Association on Aug. 18, Aug. 30, and Aug. 31; CWU members at the Post Office, Royal Mail, and BT; and members of the National Union of Journalists at news organisation Reach.

Members of rail drivers union Aslef from nine train operators have also staged a 24-hour strike on Aug. 13.

It comes as the UK’s inflation rate in June hit 9.4 percent, a 40-year record, and is expected to peak at around 11 percent later this year.

According to data released on Tuesday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), regular pay in the UK between April and June was estimated to have increased by 4.7 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

However, after adjusting for inflation, regular pay plummeted by 3 percent year on year, the biggest drop since the record began in 2001.