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UK train strikes

  • 26 November 2022
  • 4 replies
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Hi everyone :)

My partner and I are planning to travel from the UK to Germany on Friday 16th December but there will be rail strikes on that day. LNER trains to London will probably still be running but if their regular strike schedule is anything to go by there won’t be a train early enough for us to catch our Eurostar connection (since we are coming down from Scotland).

Now, National Rail says that if you have a ticket for a strike day you can also use on the day before or after - would the same be fine with the Interrail pass (i.e. can we activate our ticket for the whole way for Friday and then use that to travel the leg to London on Thursday just like you would do with a regular ticket?) I’m just a bit worried that the conductors but be a  bit fussy about this since it’s technically a flexible ticket (even though we have already booked our Eurostar journeys out and back into the country and therefore don’t have any inbound/ountbound journey left to allocate)

Does anyone here have any thought or experience with this?

Thanks!

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Best answer by mcadv 26 November 2022, 15:26

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Userlevel 7
Badge +5

You likely get the fastest answer on this by direct contact with LNER railways. Here we can only speculate. Is not it that all those british railways have a large customer service centre to be reached by various means and easy to find on their sites?

But somehow I suspect they will not even understand what you are effectively asking…………...

Badge +5

Try to get an agreement from LNER by email saying you can travel on the previous day while using the next day date on your pass. Otherwise you’ll use up both you outbound and return UK journeys! Otherwise just travel the previous day and explain the reason to the on train staff.

Userlevel 7
Badge +3

If they are allowing tickets to be used the day before than a pass is a ticket so one valid for the strike day should have as much validity as any other ticket, as above I’d prefer to have a written response from LNER on the matter to show when travelling.

 

If you want to be sure you don’t have any unpleasantness to deal with then I’d also suggest when travelling to speak to the conductor before departure rather than waiting for the ticket check. Most of the staff are decent and you shouldn’t have an issue but there are a handful of well known “problem” characters, better to deal with them when you can just walk away and catch the next train if necessary then have an altercation onboard.

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

Hi everyone :)

My partner and I are planning to travel from the UK to Germany on Friday 16th December but there will be rail strikes on that day. LNER trains to London will probably still be running but if their regular strike schedule is anything to go by there won’t be a train early enough for us to catch our Eurostar connection (since we are coming down from Scotland).

Now, National Rail says that if you have a ticket for a strike day you can also use on the day before or after - would the same be fine with the Interrail pass (i.e. can we activate our ticket for the whole way for Friday and then use that to travel the leg to London on Thursday just like you would do with a regular ticket?) I’m just a bit worried that the conductors but be a  bit fussy about this since it’s technically a flexible ticket (even though we have already booked our Eurostar journeys out and back into the country and therefore don’t have any inbound/ountbound journey left to allocate)

Does anyone here have any thought or experience with this?

Thanks!

It may be worth reserving a seat for your chosen train since they may well be busy. Just go to LNER site and book online - no details of pass needed an delivery by e-mail.

https://www.lner.co.uk/travel-information/make-a-reservation/

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