For the handful of British travelers who had no choice but to face the railways devastated by Tuesday’s strike, the experience brought back memories of the dog days of the Covid-19 pandemic when most office workers left. they stayed at home.
In Brighton, on the south coast, only 30 or 40 passengers who were now unable to work from their spare rooms and kitchen tables were waiting in the lobby for Southern Rail service at 7.15am to London Victoria, most with work which forced them to travel.
Among them was John Brett, a construction manager who was to be in London as usual to oversee the construction of a new hotel in Soho.
As someone who worked during the pandemic, Brett had little sympathy for the RMT union’s argument that railroad workers deserved a pay raise because they had kept the country moving during that time.
“I’m grateful they kept the trains running during the pandemic, but we all came to work as well,” he said. “I pay a lot of money, £ 150 a week, to go up and down [to London] and we just need better service. “
John Brett was to be in London to oversee the construction of a new hotel in Soho © Charlie Bibby / FT
But across the country, a large number of other workers who have become accustomed to working from home for the past two years did so.
“We’ve had two years of internship, so now we’re able to work from home when we need to,” said Ann Francke, executive director of the Chartered Management Institute.
“The world has changed. Most of our members now have hybrid work as the norm, which means that strikes are not as disruptive as they would have been three years ago. “
Road congestion data from TomTom location technology group showed only a moderate increase in congestion levels outside of London. In Hull congestion increased by only 4% compared to a week ago, while the figure was 7% in Liverpool and Newcastle.
At the other end of the Brighton-London line, in the capital’s Victoria Station, Stephanie Maull, a nurse at a hospital in West London, struggled to work on the road, taking several buses from East Dulwich.
“Not everyone can work from home, but unfortunately this is a fact of life and a fact of our work. I have chosen to do my job and I am happy to come in,” he said.
Stephanie Maull had to take several buses from East Dulwich © Anna Gordon / FT
Many Londoners also took both wheels, with the Santander Cycle rental volume rising 46 per cent on Tuesday morning compared to the previous day.
But if office workers were able to avoid the chaos to a large extent, for leisure travelers and industries that depend on people, such as restaurants, hotels, nightclubs and taxi drivers, the strikes caused personal disruptions and significant financial losses.
In Manchester, Sandra Vint of Middlesbrough was forced to wait almost six hours at the airport after landing from Turkey to find that her 5.40am train via York had been canceled. At 8.30am I was in Manchester Piccadilly, still waiting another hour for a connection.
But he said he had sympathy for the striking railway staff. “Of course I do. I feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t have enough pay. Prices are going up for everyone,” he said.
Sandra Vint waited almost six hours at Manchester Airport © Jennifer Williams / FT
Outside the station, black taxi driver Yasir Abdelrahman Shaaeldin was enduring a long wait for passengers. “It’s very quiet,” he said. “On a morning like this there would be a lot of people coming in and out and that would be supported by the drivers; I haven’t had a single fare yet.”
For businesses such as restaurants and theaters, which were hit hard during the pandemic, the cost of the strike was counted, once again, in canceled bookings and lost revenue. But this time there is no protection from the government for its losses.
Muniya Barua, director general of policy and strategy for London First, the capital’s business group, said this week’s rail strikes were expected to reduce total gross value added, a metric of economic productivity, in £ 52 million throughout the capital.
Caterer Soren Jessen, owner of London City’s 1 Lombard Street Restaurant, said the venue will be operating at a loss this week, affecting the momentum for a good start to June.
“Half the letter” [customers] we canceled 100 percent of our events, “he said.
Soren Jessen says his restaurant in London will be at a loss this week © Anna Gordon / FT
From Gunewardena, president of D&D London, which owns 45 restaurants mainly in the London area, said early bookings this week had been reduced by a quarter, which was especially painful at one time of year. most popular for corporate entertainment.
“The hospitality industry, especially in central London, has had enough challenges to deal with as we try to recover from Covid, to cope with inflation… So we need it like a hole in the head,” he said.
Brighton Train Station © Charlie Bibby / FT
Uncertainty about whether the strikes would be repeated over the summer was already causing an increase in cancellations and postponements for future restaurant and conference bookings, according to Kate Nicholls, executive director of UK Hospitality.
Night trade in theaters, casinos and nightclubs would also be affected, warned Michael Kill, executive director of the Night Time Industries Association, who said the cost would reach “millions” when the industry entered the festival season.
As a sign of what might come next, the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden took what it called a “very rare” step to cancel its performance of Madama Butterfly on Tuesday night and the Così performances. they do it every Wednesday and Saturday. , blaming the waves.
And Glastonbury, the UK’s largest music festival, is also expected to be caught in the interruption when its doors open on Thursday.
A bus to Glastonbury © Simon Chapman / LNP
Some schools in London, where many more children travel to school than elsewhere, were also forced to do contingencies, planning for shared promotion or even staff staying in hotels overnight, he said. Steve Chalke, the founder of Oasis, a chain of about 50 academies across the UK.
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He said industrial action highlighted the cost-of-living crisis affecting families at Oasis schools, where children have an above-average rate of free school meals. “No one wants a strike; I don’t think even the unions want a strike,” he said. “But at the end of the day some of these transport workers will be the parents of the children in our schools.”
Report by Peter Foster in Brighton, Daniel Thomas, Oliver Barnes, Philip Georgiadis and Bethan Staton in London and Jennifer Williams in Manchester