Strike season begins - Southern Railway strikes coming up

Is this just the Southern line? Might other companies join in sympathy? We have tickets to travel from London to York with Virgin/East Coast on the 26th.

Just Southern (and possibly its Gatwick Express)

Lola,

The British rail system is composed of lots of different companies each operating their own line. Southern is a different company to Virgin East Coast is a different company to Great Western, and so on. The companies themselves would never strike together - that would only happen if a big union that represented staff in all of those companies decided to strike.

Regardless, Virgin East Coast will be fine. I don't think they've ever gone on strike since they took over the franchise, and it doesn't look like they will any time soon.

Thank you! That is a relief as we have several trips booked on Virgin East Coast and Virgin, plus some smaller companies up north (Transpennine and others). I just finished making up a chart of which tickets we have in hand and which we need to pick up at the station.

Lola, if you're still there, if you need any help with Transpennine/Northern trains then ask away. I live in their area and use them a fair bit.

Hi Nigel,

We are arriving in Heathrow T2 on May 13 around 9:00. We were planning on catching the tube to Charing Cross, and then catch Southeastern Rail to Tonbridge station.

Do you think that Southeastern Rail is going to be on strike then?

I appreciate all of the information you supply on this site! You have given me great advice over the past several years on our various trips to England.

Regards,
Virginia

Neither the Tube nor Southeastern are in any way affected except both may be crowded on parallel routes to Southern during the strike as commuters try to find ways around.

Your routes will be well away from all that.

We have tickets for a 7:59 train from Bournemouth to London Waterloo on Friday, May 13th. Will these tickets be honored for a later train that day? Or will every train be totally jam packed with passengers due to the strike? I will probably never buy tickets on Friday the 13th again!!

Thank you, akkejakke. We will be traveling to Whitby and back to York on those lines. I have purchased our tickets and will pick them up at the station in York with our confirmation number and credit card. This has worked smoothly for us in the past.

We are looking forward to seeing this lovely part of the UK regardless of the weather! ( it is about the same here now, cool and rainy, so we will pack accordingly).

Nigel,

Thank you so very much for letting me know that neither the Tube nor Southeastern rail line will be affected by this strike!!!!

You really put my worried mind at ease.

You are a virtual TREASURE TROVE of information!!

Thanks again,
Virginia

Janet,

If you are Bournemouth to Waterloo that will be SouthWest Trains, a completely different company not affected although parts of that run parallel parts of the Southern services. You will be joining at its origin station so should have no problems whatsoever.

Advance tickets are non-refundable and effectively non-changeable. They valid only on the exact train named on the ticket. If you board any other train - unless yours is cancelled - you will be treated as if you had no ticket, just a couple of expensive tangerine coloured bookmarks.

You should travel on the 7:59. It will get crowded anyway as it is a peak time (rush hour) train to London and people working in London will be commuting.

As you get on at the start you should have no trouble finding your seat, especially if you are there 10 or 15 minutes early and get on when the doors are opened.

Akkejakke We've got tix from Euston Station to Wilmslow at the end of June. I think I read in the fine print on the webpage that in case another company takes over our tix will still be good. Can operating companies outbid each other???

Nigel, thank you for keeping us updated on the strikes. We're going to be in England next month, so we, of course, have a special interest. But as a member of the RS community, I thank you on behalf of all of us.

The first strike ends in 30 minutes. Trains will slowly be getting back to normal.

A bit of good news is that both sides will be sitting down together to see what can be done, on Friday.

Perhaps the company will see sense.

jaesbow,

I assume you bought your tickets before the new financial year began. The rail network belongs to the Government, but private companies bid for rail franchises to operate the various routes. This year a few of the contracts to run the lines expired, and new franchises who won a bid took over them on April 1st.

As the small print says, your train ticket will be fine. Virgin West Coast hasn't changed hands so you will still be boarding their trains. if you're connecting onto a Northern train, they have changed hands, but are still called Northern.