January train walk-outs fuel slowest work return since pandemic

‘There’s a fear that the economy already went into recession ... the strikes could make a difference’

‘Ongoing strike action has had a major impact on people’s ability to make it into the office’

BRITAIN’S ongoing wave of train strikes contributed to the slowest January return-to-work since the pandemic.

A week-long series of stoppages by the RMT trade union, called off at the last minute earlier this month, saw travellers shunning London public transport. Official figures seen by The Telegraph show London Underground journeys declined 4 per cent in the second week of January. This is normally the period when workers return to the office after Christmas and new year.

Fears of trade union-induced disruption causing passengers to shun train travel risks pushing Britain into an economic recession, an economist warned.

Martin Beck, the chief adviser to the EY Item Club, a group of economic forecasters, said that loss of public confidence in railways’ reliability could have wider effects on the economy.

“There’s a fear that the economy already went into recession in [the final three months] of last year, but we won’t know until next month. So the strikes could make a difference,” he said.

Train companies across the country were beset by industrial action and engineering problems last year.

In December, members of the Aslef train drivers’ union walked out for a week, while in November infrastructure failures saw the likes of Great Western Railway struggling with broken rails causing train cancellations on its routes. In October, the same union took industrial action across 16 national rail operators, disrupting travel to events including the Tory party’s annual conference. Aslef will down tools again this month, with a week of stoppages set to take place from Jan 30.

The consumer affairs expert Martyn James said: “There’s little doubt that terrible transport and ongoing strike action has had a major impact on people’s ability to make it into the office.”

Transport for London (TFL) figures showed that the number of Tube passengers declined by 4 per cent in the second week of January, a period when the RMT trade union said it would go on strike. Yet the strikes were called off on the evening before they were due to begin after Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, reportedly promised union members £30million of pay rises.

Many commuters stayed off the Tube that week anyway, having made plans to work around the RMT strike action.

A total of 19.4 million people travelled on London Underground between Jan 8 and 14. During the second week of January last year, about 20.3 million travelled on the Tube. This is the lowest number of Tube travellers in the second week of January since 2022, when new year celebrations were cancelled because of Covid.

A TFL spokesman said: “Given the number of variables in the first weeks of the year, including when schools return, and when bank holidays occur, it is not easy to make a direct ridership comparison year-on-year.”

Broadband data from Virgin Media O2 suggests more people have worked from home during the first two weeks of 2024 than in previous years.

Mónica Mercado Páez, its head of AI and data, said: “We have seen a significant year-on-year growth in broadband traffic over the first two weeks of January, which points to the UK workforce opting to work remotely.”

Data volumes consumed by users at home increased by 12 per cent this year, compared with January 2023. Last year, that growth was 7.2 per cent, the company said, showing an increase in people working from home.