The very first article in The Independent’s series of 48 Hours coincided with the last great rail strike. It was the long, hot summer of 1989. The railway workers felt they were undervalued – with pay to match – and exercised their right to take industrial action. Early one morning in that momentous year, as I emerged from the smoky interior of the Caledonian Airways plane just landed at Gatwick airport from Istanbul, it quickly became clear no trains were running anywhere in Great Britain. I had no choice but to spend almost as much as the trip to Turkey had cost on a taxi that fumed in traffic for three hours before finally reaching London.
On Tuesday 21 June, the first day of the next great rail strike, I planned to replicate at least the last part of the journey – sadly without the sheer wonder and indulgence of Istanbul to precede it. I would head for Gatwick and see how the strike-bound journey would prove in the summer of 2022.
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