HfP Party – rail and tube strike on 21st June?

[FFoxSake]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61723515

The RMT Union said it will “shut down” the country’s railway network on 21, 23 and 25 June after talks over pay and redundancies fell through.
More than 40,000 staff from Network Rail and 13 train operators are expected to take part.
The action is being dubbed the “biggest rail strike in modern history”.

On the first day of the planned strike on 21 June, London Underground RMT workers plan to walk out in a separate dispute over pensions and job losses, taking the total number of staff – along those from with Network Rail and the train companies – to more than 50,000.

[Richie]

Buses to King’s Road/ Sloane St are rarely busy on a Tuesday night.

[yorkieflyer]

Yup any offers for my ticket?

[PeteM]

There is a small chance this will get resolved as it will cause impressive disruption – but I have a feeling the government may want to play tough at the moment.

[Lee]

Doesn’t look like I’ll be working from the office and then going to the party if this goes ahead.

I might have a couple of tickets going spare or unused!

[Colin MacKinnon]

Looking for a ticket, since it seems the Eurostar will still be operating.

[nick695]

Any updates on this? Still going ahead or will it be postponed?

[memesweeper]

As someone who can walk/cycle to/from work and home to the venue, I’m not directly affected by a strike. And if one was entirely selfish one might hope for a low turnout in order to improve a chance of a prize in the raffle.

However, the real draw isn’t the prize draw, it’s meeting all the lovely folks you meet at a party like this. If the turnout is likely to be sub-50% of capacity then I guess a postponement would be best. Hope @rob and @rhys can manage the competing priorities and contractual obligations in place in the event the strikes happen.

[T_London]

I’m not massively affected by the strike action either however I would also agree that a postponement is a good idea. Would be a real shame for a HFP event as wonderful and rare as this to be half empty.

[Rob]

We are, as you’d expect, working on this.

There is no way that we can go ahead on the 21st, this is clear. I doubt I could even get there myself 🙂

The Renaissance has given us a list of alternative dates. We are currently liaising with Barclaycard, as main sponsor of the event, to get approval for our preferred choice.

It is highly likely to be week of 4th July – exact day TBC.

Those who have bought tickets will have the option of rolling them over or refunding them. Refunded tickets will be offered to those people on the Eventbrite waiting list.

Thank you for your patience.

[Aston100]

Can I take this opportunity to suggest you alternate this event between London and the North?
I appreciate this goes against your London-centric ethos but your survey confirmed that a large number of us are based outside London.

OK so this isn’t exactly the motor show, but there was probably good reason why it alternated between Birmingham and London.

[FFoxSake]

Email from Rhys just now… “We’ve Rescheduled the party to Wednesday, 6th July.”

[Rob]

Not happening for all the reasons outlined in the past.

For clarity, what the survey showed was that fewer live in Zones 1-6 than we thought, but more in the outskirts. This is down to the average age being higher than the parties suggest.

The only way we could do it would be if a regional hotel wanted some PR and offered us a pile of cash to underwrite all our travel and hotel costs as well as the hassle of leaving our families for 2-3 days.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[NorthernLass]

Aston100 wrote:

Can I take this opportunity to suggest you alternate this event between London and the North?
I appreciate this goes against your London-centric ethos but your survey confirmed that a large number of us are based outside London.

OK so this isn’t exactly the motor show, but there was probably good reason why it alternated between Birmingham and London.

London is unbelievably difficult and expensive to get to from northern England, despite being in the same actual country. It currently would be quicker and cheaper for me to get to Edinburgh, Glasow, Belfast, or even Dublin than to the capital city of my own flipping country!

E.g. – tried booking some rail tickets from Manchester or Preston to EUS for August bank holiday weekend. But no, they can’t say at this time how much disruption to rail services there will be that weekend, so no tickets are on sale, even at the hugely inflated prices we’ve seen recently. By contrast, I could book to go to Edinburgh or Glasgow, both a similar distance away, for about £48 return, direct, that weekend.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Colin MacKinnon]

Anna,

London is not cheap from Scotland either – just check BA fares!

I was actually planning a mid-morning Easyjet to Paris, a night and lunch there and the Eurostar to London, if I got a ticket for the HfP party.

(There is a trade show the next day in London that I want to go to, so it was not just for HfP!)

[George K]

Such a shame – I could do the 21st but not the new date as I’m flying out earlier in the day.

Have fun one and all!

[TGLoyalty]

What happens if the strike is called off or postponed until July 6th … could be forever chasing your tail.

[Rob]

TGLoyalty wrote:

What happens if the strike is called off or postponed until July 6th … could be forever chasing your tail.

Yes, we could. Can’t deny that.

We are still working through what Eventbrite can do but my expectation is:

*ticket holders will be offered a ‘refund or accept’ option for the new date
*tickets which are released get offered to the waiting list on Eventbrite
*any remaining tickets will be advertised on the site

I hope Eventbrite can handle this because the idea of emailing 350 people and individually handling their refund / transfer requests does not appeal!

[Olly]

George K wrote:

Such a shame – I could do the 21st but not the new date as I’m flying out earlier in the day.

Have fun one and all!

I couldn’t make the original date so if you or anyone else has a spare ticket, I’d happily take it off your hands

[Mirp]

I’m also flying on the new date so I think there will be plenty of tickets available. And I hope the HFP team do not have to deal with the task of reallocation. Hope it is an enjoyable event.

[Reney]

Rob Burgess wrote:

TGLoyalty wrote:

What happens if the strike is called off or postponed until July 6th … could be forever chasing your tail.

Yes, we could. Can’t deny that.

We are still working through what Eventbrite can do but my expectation is:

*ticket holders will be offered a ‘refund or accept’ option for the new date
*tickets which are released get offered to the waiting list on Eventbrite
*any remaining tickets will be advertised on the site

I hope Eventbrite can handle this because the idea of emailing 350 people and individually handling their refund / transfer requests does not appeal!

.

I assume a ticket company, after 2020 would have at least implemented a cancellation and rebooking system…

[Michael C]

Freddie De Tommaso matinée in Madam B. on 6 July, so straight over to St Pancras afterwards – see you there!

[BajiNahid]

Is anyone selling at HFP ticket? Can you please let me know as I would really like to go! Thanks!

[Rob]

Emailed you

[ANNE]

If anyone can’t make it now and has a ticket (or two) available I’d definitely be interested.