Planned strike to derail UK Bank Holiday plans

Millions of UK travellers face huge disruption as a result of planned strike action by Network Rail workers across the country this Bank Holiday long weekend.

Paddington Station.
Paddington Station.
Heathrow Express plans to run services every 15 minutes during shortened operating hours if a threatened 24-hour walk-out by Network Rail workers goes ahead from 5pm on Bank Holiday Monday.

Should the RMT and TSSA unions’ strike by signallers and maintenance staff take place, on Monday the normal Heathrow Express timetable will be in operation until 6.30pm, and on Tuesday services will run between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

Trains between Heathrow terminals are also set to finish at 6.30pm on Monday and run only between 7.30am and 6.30pm on Tuesday. Outside of these times, transferring passengers are advised to use the London Underground or bus services.

Should the strike go ahead, the Heathrow Connect stopping service between Paddington and Heathrow will not run at all on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Meanwhile, GoEuro, a train, coach and air search engine, has seen a 219% increase in users booking coach tickets across the country in the lead-up to the proposed strike.

Commenting on the situation, GoEuro CEO Naren Shaam said: “Millions of rail journeys take place across the UK every day, highlighting a huge dependence on the railway in our daily lives. While the industrial action does have an impact on how we travel, Brits can also depend on the extensive coach and air networks available to them.”

National Express is adding thousands of extra coach seats to its services and has vowed it will continue to add as many seats as possible.

To date, the UK’s largest coach operator has added more than 18,000 extra seats to its network of coach services across the UK during the Bank Holiday weekend.

National Express has seen bookings soar by 33 per cent year-on-year on Bank Holiday Monday nationally – and up to 160 per cent on certain routes – as the public looks for alternative transport.

London to Stansted Airport is the most popular coach route over the strike period followed by Bristol to London and Bournemouth to London.

According to National Express’s advance bookings figures, passengers are switching to coach on some of the UK’s key mainline rail routes as bookings rise by as much as 160 per cent on certain routes during the strike.

Year-on-year coach bookings on services from Cambridge to London have increased the most (160 per cent), followed by Norwich to London (120 per cent) and Brighton to London (85 per cent).

Year-on-year passenger numbers to London Luton Airport have increased by nearly 60 per cent during the strike, this is followed by Gatwick Airport (nearly 30 per cent), Heathrow (almost 25 per cent) and Stansted (over 20 per cent).

National Express UK Coach managing director Tom Stables said: “With the planned rail strike threatening to cause significant disruption to people’s Bank Holiday travel plans, we are offering passengers a guaranteed seat on our coaches and are committing to add as many services to the network as possible – helping those who want to travel, to do so.”

sourced:traveldailymedia.com