Not so thirsty Thursday as Nightcap blames ‘targeted’ rail strikes for £1.2m earnings loss March 13, 2023 Cocktail bar operator Nightcap has estimated that 13 days of rail strikes over the last year has cost the company £1.2m. The bar company, which operates a number of venues across Clapham and central London, claimed rail strikers “deliberate targeting” of Thursdays and Saturdays, the most lucrative trading days for the hospitality sector, caused a [...]
Uber trialing free childcare in bid to coax parents to become drivers March 13, 2023 Uber is trialling free childcare for drivers as part of efforts to encourage more parents of young children to sign up to the minicab app platform. The company announced it is offering 10 hours of free childcare for 1,000 of its UK drivers. Uber said its drivers on average earn £34 an hour in London [...]
Tube and rail strikes THIS WEEK: How will industrial action affect London commuters and hospitality? March 11, 2023 Parts of Britain’s rail network – including London’s underground system – will be closed during next week’s Budget day strikes, bringing the country to a standstill and hitting hospitality hard. Hospitality bosses have warned the impact of the strikes will hit pubs, bars and restaurants hard, with an estimated £2.5bn having already been lost in [...]
RMT urged to cancel next week’s walkouts after Network Rail action suspended March 8, 2023 Rail union bosses have been urged to cancel next week’s walkouts at train companies after suspending planned industrial action at Network Rail. The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents operators, called on the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) to “meet us for urgent talks”. The RMT has been engaged in national rail strikes in [...]
National Express share price soars as rail strikes help boost annual profits March 2, 2023 The recent wave of train strikes helped National Express more than triple annual profits as passengers switched to buses and coaches to avoid rail disruption. Shares in National Express soared 13 per cent on Thursday as the group reported underlying pre-tax profits of £145.9m, up from £39.7m in 2021, with annual revenues surpassing pre-pandemic levels [...]
UK public services struggling despite near 70-year tax high, report warns February 23, 2023 UK public services can no longer match people’s expectations despite the tax burden being on course to hit a 70-year high, a think tank report has warned. Government decisions to date have done “little to shift the dial,” the Institute for Government (IfG) and CIPFA warned today in their latest performance tracker on the state-run [...]
Strikes: RMT workers to stage another walkout over pay, jobs and conditions February 17, 2023 Rail workers are to stage a series of fresh strikes in the long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. Members of the Rail, Martine and Transport union (RMT) will walk out on March 16, 18 and 30, and April 1, at 14 train operators. The union’s members at Network Rail will strike on March 16 and will [...]
Network Rail hits back at ‘regretful’ RMT claim linking modernisation proposals to tragedy February 16, 2023 Network Rail’s plans to modernise maintenance will improve safety for workers, as it hit out at the RMT union for its “regretful” linking of proposals to a tragedy almost 20 years ago. NR strongly denied claims by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union that it had a cost-cutting agenda, as its boss Mick Lynch invoked [...]
SSP: Upper Crust owner’s UK recovery hampered by rail strikes as commuters stop buying baguettes February 16, 2023 Upper Crust owner SSP has seen the recovery in its UK arm hampered by repeated waves of strike action across railway networks. The company, which runs food outlets at transport sites such as airports and railway stations, revealed the performance of its UK and Ireland business lagged behind other regions globally due to train strike [...]
Rail and postal strikes ‘decimated’ festive trade with worst impact for a decade February 14, 2023 London’s festive economy was “decimated” by rail and postal strikes, as new figures revealed the disruption caused by walkouts was the worst month on record since 2011. Around 843,000 working days were lost to strike action in December – the highest for more than a decade – according to official figures from the Office for [...]