Rail Strikes: This One Is Personal

In less than two weeks we face the prospect of the most widespread and disruptive industrial action on Britain’s railways since the 1980s. Since 1989 in fact, when Britain’s rail unions withdrew their members’ labour in pursuit of a pay claim in excess of the rate of inflation, which was then over 8%.

Rail strikes will mean scenes like these at many bus stops.

The unions eventually accepted a rise of 8.8% back then, but not before engaging in industrial action on no fewer than six occasions. At the conclusion of the strikes in 1989, Roger King, MP for Birmingham, Northfield, told Parliament that “the dispute revealed for all to see the sheer incompetence of British Rail's management and the bone-headed stupidity of the NUR (National Union of Railwaymen).” He was by no means alone in holding that view.

While 1989’s dispute was purely about pay, the current dispute - which is likely to see no rail services on 21^st, 23^rd, and 25^th June, with London’s Underground workers set to strike on 21^st June as well – is because Network Rail and the train operating companies have “subjected their staff to multiyear pay freezes and plan to cut thousands of jobs which will make the railways unsafe”” according to the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).

Based on the typical Daily Mail rhetoric that depicts the railway workers as greedy, hard-left malcontents who aim to cripple the country, the knee-jerk reaction is to side against them on this occasion. Sympathy for the striking workers is in short supply when one reads that train drivers can earn in excess of £60,000 per annum, and that their unions, the last remaining powerful ones in the country it seems, appear to take industrial action frequently, at the drop of a hat, and as a first response rather than a last resort.

No surprise which mast the Daily Mail has nailed its colours to.

It seems that this strike is not about the well paid drivers however, but rail workers in other, less generously remunerated roles; about job losses and concomitant safety issues, and potential negative impacts on pensions.

The bottom line is that there are likely to be no rail services on three days in June, and most people’s position on the strike is going to be based on how that affects them.

When London Underground workers went on strike on 7^th June, it had a minor impact on Val and I, as we were going to see a BBC Radio recording of Alone at The Shaw Theatre in Euston Road. As it was only the Tube that was affected, getting there and back home again was not badly affected; we used the rail services that were running and walked the rest. While we were there, it dawned on me that the next strike, affecting all rail services and the Tube, could be much more inconvenient for me.

Alone is a BBC Radio comedy starring Angus Deyton. Series 4 is on air from August.

On 21^st June I am due to see Yes in concert at the Royal Albert Hall. The show has been rescheduled a couple of times due to covid, and my attendance this time is going to be somewhat tricky if the strikes go ahead. The Royal Albert Hall is about 17 miles from where I live, so about an hour and fifteen minutes by public transport when everything is running fine. Without tubes and trains, I could get a bus – about three hours, although with the inevitable increased traffic, I can probably add an hour to that. Or I could get the Uber boat from the new Barking Riverside Pier to Westminster and then easily walk the remaining two and a bit miles. At a pinch, I could walk all the way, after all I did nearly that distance when I walked from Romford to Tilbury in 2015 (see The long Walk To Tilbury).

Yes at London Palladium in March 2018

Whatever means I use to get to the Royal Albert Hall, the bigger issue will be getting home again. According to Transport for London (TfL)’s Journey Planner, leaving the Royal Albert Hall at about 11pm and using just buses to get home will actually be quicker than the journey there by the same means (it would mean getting home in the wee small hours and having to use the infamous Night Buses though).

You’ll notice that I have dismissed driving; London will probably be gridlocked that day, plus there are the Congestion Charge and parking costs to factor in, so taking the car will be a last resort.

In 1989, when the trains and tubes went on strike back simultaneously, I was working in the City at Threadneedle Street. The bank that I worked for – Midland Bank at that time – laid on coaches for workers in Central London, and on the morning of the first strike, June – then my girlfriend, later my wife (who worked in the same office as me) and I arrived at the pick up point in Chadwell Heath at about 6.45am. The coach arrived, already nearly full. “Stay at the back of the queue,” June insisted, “we may not get on!” Which was how it turned out as the remaining seats on the coach quickly filled up.

Less hyperbole from the Daily Mail when it covered the 1989 rail strike on the Summer Equinox.

Someone at the head of the queue asked when the next coach would be along, but apparently this was the only one. To varying degrees of disappointment (June was delighted!), those unable to board went home.

The following week – there were strikes, one a week for six weeks, remember – the bank was better prepared. There were more coaches and we were able to board one. I seem to remember that having left Chadwell Heath at 6.45am, we didn’t get to work till about 10.15am: Three and a half hours to do about eleven miles. At 3pm we had to leave work and do it all in reverse, getting home at about 7pm, so out of the house for more than 12 hours to work for less than five.

The lengthy journeys became routine however, with people taking advantage of the time to read or catch up on some sleep. Imagine the shock then, when on the last day of the strike our coach diverted from its usual route and drew up at Royal Wharf, from where a boat took us to Tower Pier. Much to many people’s dismay (June among them) we arrived at work earlier than many would have done on a day with no rail strikes.

In the evening, on the return trip from Tower Pier, we had to fend off a number of tourists who thought that the boat was a regular service and not exclusively for Midland Bank staff, although why they would have gone to Beckton is anyone’s guess.

During my commuting years rail strikes seemed to come along with monotonous regularity, but that’s probably the frequency illusion and my faulty memory. These days strikes are fewer, further between, and they affect me less, although I am not best pleased about the upcoming strike on 21^st June. Having seen so many gigs go for a Burton thanks to covid, to have another in jeopardy due to industrial action is a big pain in the posterior.