Millions of UK travellers faced huge disruption as a result of planned strike action by Network Rail workers across the country this Bank Holiday long weekend.
However, a last-minute ‘revised deal’ offered to the RMT and TSSA unions in their members’ ongoing pay dispute with Network Rail has seen the strike called off.
The planned strike had seen a surge in bookings on alternative transport services this weekend.
GoEuro, a train, coach and air search engine, reported a 219% increase in users booking coach tickets across the country.
Commenting on the situation, GoEuro CEO Naren Shaam said: “Millions of rail journeys take place across the UK every day, highlighting a huge dependence on the railway in our daily lives. While the industrial action does have an impact on how we travel, Brits can also depend on the extensive coach and air networks available to them.”
The UK’s largest coach operator, National Express, added more than 18,000 extra seats to its network.
National Express reported a 33 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of Bank Holiday Monday bookings nationally – and up to 160 per cent on certain routes.
According to National Express’s advance bookings figures, passengers were switching to coach on some of the UK’s key mainline rail routes as bookings rose by as much as 160 per cent on certain routes.
Year-on-year coach bookings on services from Cambridge to London increased the most (160 per cent), followed by Norwich to London (120 per cent) and Brighton to London (85 per cent).
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