1 October rail strikes – will people still travel?

29 September 2022

On Saturday 1 October national rail strikes will impact almost the whole network.

During this period of ongoing disruption, which started in June, Transport Focus has been working to help reduce the impact on those affected.

We use a combination of expert insight data, staff monitoring of the situation online and on the ground, and passengers’ own comments to understand their plans, experiences and the impact it has on their lives. We speak to those who are still able to travel, and also those who cancel or rearrange plans. We use this to address issues in the moment, and for the future.

Ahead of this weekend’s disruption we spoke to representative sample of more than 2000 people across Britain.

Of those people that had planned to travel by train on affected days this weekend:

• 69 per cent are aware of the strike on Saturday
• 20 per cent still intend to travel on Saturday and 28 per cent on Sunday.

Of those people that had looked for information and either still planning to travel by train or had changed their plans:

• 60 per cent rated the information about the train services that will and will not be running as good, while 21 per cent rated it as poor
• 55 per cent rated the information on arrangements for changing your ticket, or obtaining a refund as good, while 23 per cent rated it as poor.

You can download the report here. Keep up to date with our work for consumers on our dedicated strikes page.