Students Struggle With Commuting Restrictions due to Terrible Train Strikes

Many students face severe disruptions throughout the winter break and into the New Years as rail workers host further walkouts.

Since early December, train strikes have become a focal point of conversation as an eruption of travel chaos has broken out. Many members of the Rail, Maritime, and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail, the Aslef union, and fourteen train operators have begun forty-eight-hour walkout periods and strikes.

The unions are in dispute with the government and rail companies about pay, job cuts, and changes to terms and conditions. The unions have said that any pay offer should reflect the rising cost of living with a guarantee of no compulsory job losses, and due to the covid-19 pandemic – which has left a massive hole in its finances – the rail industry has been put under a lot of pressure to save money.

This long-running dispute has greatly affected many commuters traveling to and from work, school, and much more. These strikes have no doubt left extreme hardships for people who are desperate to get to medical appointments, for public sector workers including police officers and cancer nurses to get to work, and also many students.

One international student, Rabia, who came from Germany to study in London for a year, says she is currently back in Germany until there is another way for her to get to her university accommodation in London.

“I rely on SWR to get to my uni whenever I come back from Germany during the breaks, with no other viable alternative. I’m at loss what to do, it’s difficult for me to even reach my accommodation let alone my university.. As a student the strikes have had a negative impact on my university career because I haven’t been able to attend my classes. I have had to catch up on my lectures online which is not an ideal situation. Some of the content on my course can’t be accessed online so I feel I won’t truly be caught up on everything I need to know.”

Rabia, a student.

Another student, Alexandria, states that:

“the train strikes have made my day-to-day life more difficult as I rely on public transport to get around. I have to take reroutes which add 40 minutes each way which makes me feel very tired at the end of the day, especially in this colder weather.”

Not only has travel costs immensely affected students but the time spent commuting has also affecting the importance of time spent on independent studies;

“I not only have less time to study in my own time when I’m commuting, but I’m also put off using university resources on my days off as it’s not convenient to travel to university.”

Alexandria, a student.

There is strong likelihood of knock-on effects due to these strikes occurring across the whole network, which may include the London underground, Eurostar, and transportation to Heathrow and Gatwick airports.

Travellers have been warned of significant disruption on the limited number of trains running and have been advised to only travel if absolutely necessary, leaving students with no choice but to remain patient during these hardships and find other costly alternatives.