With the great return to offices stalling, rail unions have taken it upon themselves to threaten rolling strikes into Christmas. Ahead of the Conservative Party Conference, Oliver Dowden has told the Evening Standard that unions should not take “Londoners and commuters for fools” as they could be pushed into “permanently adapting away from using the railways on a routine basis”.
The Deputy Prime Minister is right. The reality is that this is growing into an existential crisis for the rail sector. If workers cannot reliably catch a train, many will give up on the daily commute. This will be damaging not only to the unions themselves, but to the capital and the businesses reliant on a bustling city.
