RED ALERT FOR TAXI DRIVERS: Mass of pre-booked taxi requests placed as rail strike action goes ahead
Updated: Jun 21, 2022
Rail strikes across the UK will go ahead this week after final hour negotiations failed to prevent what is expected to be huge nationwide disruption.
Demand for taxi services is set to be high while extra buses will help in some capacity offering rail-replacement services where possible.
Millions of commuters and travellers are likely to be impacted by the biggest rail strikes to hit Britain since 1989.
Strike action will spike on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, but disruption is expected across the entire week. Talks between the RMT, Network Rail and train operators were conducted today, but no new deal was deemed acceptable.
Mick Lynch, RMT General Secretary, said: “Discussions with Network Rail and the Train Operators have continued today. The Train Operators have now made an offer and there is no further offer from Network Rail following the one which was rejected last Friday.
“The RMT National Executive Committee has now found both sets of proposals to be unacceptable and it is now confirmed that the strike action scheduled this week will go ahead.
“It is clear that the Tory Government after slashing £4bn of funding from National Rail and Transport for London, has now actively prevented a settlement to this dispute.
“The rail companies have now proposed pay rates that are massively under the relevant rates of inflation, coming on top of the pay freezes of the past few years.”
Lynch added: “Faced with such an aggressive agenda of cuts to jobs, conditions, pay and pensions, RMT has no choice but to defend our members industrially to stop this race to the bottom.
“The strikes on Network Rail, the Train Operators and London Underground will go ahead, and we again call on our members to stand firm, support the action, mount the pickets and demonstrate their willingness to fight for workplace justice.
“The RMT supports the campaign for a square deal for all working people in the face of the cost-of-living crisis, and our current campaign is a part of that more general campaign which means that public services have to be properly funded and all workers properly paid with good conditions.
“RMT remains available for discussions that will settle this dispute and ensure our transport system can operate without disruption.”
Transport for London (TfL) have ‘strongly encouraged’ people not to travel on Tuesday 21 June and until mid-morning on Wednesday 22 June, unless absolutely necessary, due to planned industrial action being taken by the RMT and Unite unions.
London has been hit by London Underground strike action ON TOP of rail disruption. TfL expect a big impact on London Underground, Overground and Elizabeth line services between 21 and 26 June.
Black taxi apps already have HUNDREDS of pre-booked journeys available to drivers in London to accept. Demand for taxi services has been high throughout 2022.
minicabit.com, a nationwide private hire aggregator site, has urged local Private Hire Operators to sign up to its platform ahead of the upcoming rail and tube strikes to help cover the demand for longer journeys.
The average fare booked on minicabit is said to already sit at around £70. The aggregator site expect some cab firms to increase their fares by as much as 50% during the week of disruption.
