I'll be traveling in England (Bath, Oxford, York, London) throughout September by public transit. I was planning on getting most of my transit reservations taken care of soon, but with all the strikes going on, I'm hesitant to book too far in advance. How far in advance have they been announcing summer strikes, and if people have transit booked already that's impacted has there been any recourse? Thanks in advance!
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Citizen of the World
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The law requires at least a 14-day notice by a union that its members are going to strike on a certain date.
So you will know, for example, if August 16 arrives whether a strike could occur on September 1. In the event you’ve bought a train ticket for a date your train did not run, you should get a refund.
The British Government is currently preventing the train companies from negotiating a settlement with the various train unions, with the leading candidate to replace Boris Johnson- Liz Truss- taking a hard line with regard to labor relations. The decision of who will replace Johnson as Prime Minister will not be made for another month, making it difficult to see any resolution until, and even beyond, early September.
Oxford is easily reached from London by bus in 70 minutes. You can get to Bath from Oxford by bus in 90 minutes or more. Return to London by bus takes about 3 hours from Bath. The train time is half that. If you want to reserve your accommodations ahead of time without any interruption to your plans, your best bet is just reserving a bus ticket. York by bus is possible also, although it’s a much longer bus ride. From Oxford the fastest bus to York normally takes 6 hours. You could just wait to see what the situation is around September 1 when the window of possible strikes up to September 14 will close. Keep in mind the evening before and the morning after the day of a strike are likely to be affected as well. Closer to September 1, you could book train travel—particularly the fast two-hour LNER train to York from London— with more confidence.