When are the December and January UK rail strikes?

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• FEMW says:

  7 Dec7 December 17:33

  Flying GLA-LHR on 3 Jan and landing at 2130. If anyone is able to say what options are available to get to Lewisham… I could do Zipcar but would rather not drive..

  • ExpatInBerlin says:

    7 Dec7 December 21:30

    Your best option would be to book a National Express coach from Heathrow to London Victoria. There’s a 22:10 from T5 that takes 1 hour (stops at T2 and T3 then straight to Victoria) and it’s £12. If your inbound GLA flight is delayed there’s another at 22:45 with an additional stop at Hammersmith so it’s a wee bit longer (1hr 14), also £12. From Victoria you can happily get one bus, the 185, all the way to Lewisham, for the very reasonable price of £1.65 🙂 Takes just over an hour but nice not to have to change! You can just use CityMapper or Google Maps for the 185, but it’s every 8 minutes. In case you get really delayed, rest assured both the National Express buses and 185 run through the night. Hope that helps!

• Rob says:

  7 Dec7 December 17:48

  Thanks

• Matt says:

  7 Dec7 December 19:34

  For the rail strike dates, that’s Friday 6th and Saturday 7th January, not the 5th and 6th.

• AndyGWP says:

  7 Dec7 December 20:08

  Fly on the 24th, return 31st

  Our villa can be cancelled up to the 9th December – what’s the betting our flight is cancelled on the 10th, or we get shifted to Gatwick flights 😫

  Quite deflated at the moment – everything we try and do ends up being a major stress 🥴

• Olivier says:

  7 Dec7 December 20:27

  I need to go to Gatwick from Central London on the 16th. Are there usually minimum train services to airports running during strikes?

  • ExpatInBerlin says:

    7 Dec7 December 21:19

    Highly likely for all services to be cancelled I expect. Very best case scenario would be that one of the Gatwick to London routes (either Southern to Victoria or GA to London Bridge) still operates a very limited service i.e. 1 an hour but given it’s an RMT wide strike and not TOC-specific it’s impossible to say. Bus links aren’t brilliant, you can book the National Express for £12 but it’s a (ridiculous for the distance) 2 hr 30 journey from Gatwick to Victoria as the bus goes via all Heathrow terminals and does a drop off in Hammersmith before terminating at Victoria! But at least you know the bus will definitely run. Perhaps worth booking as a precaution if you’re happy to throw £12 at it for the peace of mind but then get the train if there is one. The alternative is quite an expensive taxi (I had to pay £80 from Clapham to Gatwick in the summer when all the trains were off one day).

  • Cats are best says:

    8 Dec8 December 16:15

    Another option is head there on the 15th and stay in a hotel, especially if it’s a morning flight, removes the risk of delays in the potentially heavier traffic on strike days.

• roberto says:

  9 Dec9 December 07:41

  What’s the situation with airside terminal transfers on the 13th? We arrive about 5:20 pm and the HEX is stopping about that time , we need to get to T2 – will the tube/lizzy line be working ?

• roberto says:

  9 Dec9 December 07:42

  That should read LANDSIDE.

• Roy says:

  11 Dec11 December 19:21

  Ah, seems that the RMT overtime ban at Network Rail has been called off. However, there are still overtime bans taking place at some of the train operating companies.

  So difficult to keep track of all this, with multiple unions in dispute with multiple employers.

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