Crippling rail strikes force customers to stay at home

Restaurants lie empty, landlords lose more than HALF of their Christmas bookings and Fuller’s pub has 196 cancellations in one day with only three people in at lunchtime as crippling rail strikes force customers to stay at home

• Restauranteur saw half of his bookings cancelled during yesterday’s rail strike
• Landlady said her takings are 50% down, with cancellations and less customers
• Rail strikes force people to stay at home with detrimental impact on hospitality 

A restaurateur revealed he lost more than half of his Christmas bookings during the first day of crippling rail strikes which forced customers to stay at home.

Around 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) began their first of two 48-hour strikes yesterday, with just one in five trains running.

The industrial action, the first in a string of walkouts over the Christmas period, cleared busy high streets of shoppers and workers in cities including London, Manchester and Leeds.

Hospitality chiefs warned that the embattled industry expects to lose £1.5billion during the industrial action, while one Fuller’s pub in London saw 196 cancellations and only three people in at lunchtime.

Sam Harrison, who runs Sam’s Riverside restaurant in London, said that he had seen his bookings decimated by half during yesterday’s rail strikes

Mr Harrison said that every seat in the restaurant should be booked during the festive period but yesterday’s lunchtime capacity was only filled by half

UKHospitality boss Kate Nicholls said the latest series of strikes in the run up to Christmas ‘will no doubt be the toughest yet’.

‘Businesses, workers and our customers will feel the brunt of it, with lost business, disrupted travel and plans being cancelled,’ she added.

December is vital for the hospitality industry and takings in this month can make up a huge percentage of a restaurant’s overall annual revenue.

Sam Harrison, who runs Sam’s Riverside restaurant in London, said that he had seen his bookings decimated by half during yesterday’s rail strikes.

His lunchtime bookings went down from 125 to 60 and his dinner guests fell from 185 to 60, many of those Christmas parties, which he said was ‘£8,000 a day, just gone like that’.

This also meant that kitchen and front of house staff, of which he employs 50, had their hours reduced in the run-up to Christmas.

The seasoned restaurateur said the losses were all the more devastating given they are expecting ‘what is about to be one of the harshest winters for trade most of us have ever seen’.

‘We lost the last two Christmases for obvious reasons, and so we were hoping for a bumper December.

Bars and restaurants near Carnaby street in London pictured during yesterday’s rail strikes

‘It’s the one time of year which every seat should be full for lunch and dinner. You only get one chance at December, people don’t rebook Christmas parties.

‘There was already a drop on previous years due to the recession, people cutting back, but bookings were good. Then the rail strikes just killed it.’

After seeing his cash reserves dwindle during the pandemic, Mr Harrison said himself like so many other hospitality businesses ‘need this December to survive’.

He said: ‘Lots of restaurants are saying it’s just like lockdown again.

‘I agree because it feels like again, at very short notice, people are cancelling because their plans are changing.

‘They can’t get into work, they can’t travel.

Platforms at Waterloo station, a busy central London railway hub, were quieter than usual as the rail strikes took effect

Oxford Street in central London was quiet on Tuesday as rail strikes came into effect

A pub in Soho only had a scattering of people outside today as rail strikes came into effect

‘Losing the revenue is heartbreaking enough but there is an awful lot of wastage because people are cancelling on the day and we’ve already ordered the food’.

He added: ‘In some ways it’s worse because of the impact the pandemic had and we have no cash reserves. It feels like a daily battle’

‘People doing the rail strikes don’t realise the impact they’re having and how it filters down to working people’.

Mr Harrison’s story is just one of many unfolding across Britain as the beleaguered hospitality sector is feeling the impact of national walkouts yet again.

Venues in big cities, which rely heavily on people travelling by train and Tube, are among the worst-hit, as people opt to stay at home instead.

The George Tavern landlady Pauline Forster said takings were down by 50 per cent during the rail strikes

The George Tavern in Stepney is a live music venue and pub – but its landlady says it is suffering during the rail strikes

This can be detrimental to businesses, especially when cancellations are made at the last-minute. 

Pubs are also suffering during what should be a busy period, among them The George Tavern in Stepney, east London.

But its landlady Pauline Forster said takings were down by 50 per cent during the rail strikes.

The pub and live music venue runs gigs most nights of the week, but has seen some of the acts cancelling before shows, as well as less people attending.

She said: ‘You can half everything when there’s a strike, and now we’ve got the bad weather as well. It’s double trouble for hospitality.

‘We’re normally packed this time of year. Every time we have a strike its bad.

‘Even when there’s not a strike people are scared of travelling in case they can’t get back. There’s a lot of fear so people are just staying at home.’

One night this week Ms Forster saw takings of £600 when it ‘should be more like £2,000’, she said.

‘We just didn’t get the people through the door. I’m on the side of the rail workers, my gripe isn’t with them. It’s with the government.’ 

Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association said: ‘This week is usually the busiest of the year for our industry.

‘But instead of being able to trade normally for the first time in three years, pubs in towns and cities across the UK are now seeing swathes of people rearranging Christmas parties and cancelling bookings.

‘These were bookings our pubs desperately need.

‘Covid was unbelievably tough but what we’re facing now with spiralling costs and people watching more and more what they’re spending is hitting businesses even harder.

‘Pubs really needed this Christmas trade get them through the quieter months that follow, even more so after two years of restrictions, but now it’s becoming increasingly difficult to see how many will make it until spring because their December trade is being decimated.’ 

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