Striking Softly, and Right on Schedule

In what is either an extremely polite or frustratingly passive-aggressive industrial action, unions representing UK’s Midland Mainline and Silverlink rail companies have scheduled a long-line of alternating 24-hour strikes starting Oct. 25th. The two companies appear to be taking turns at work stoppage, with Midland striking Oct. 25th, Silverlink striking Oct. 26th, and then a back-and-forth train schedule until Nov. 30th.  There’s one day of strike overlap, Nov. 1, which likely resulted from an unfortunate scheduling conflict — or so we imagine.

Midland takes commuters between London and the East Midlands cities of Derby and Sheffield, while Silverlink handles service to Milton Keynes, Watford Junction, Kings Langley, Bushey, Apsley, Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted, Tring, Northampton and north London, so a different set of travelers will be impacted nearly every other day.

We’re not sure if this is an attempt to ease the pain for travelers, who will be able to catch the train home some of the time in November, or a diabolical plot to drive everyone crazy.

Unlike France, where legions of workers walked off the job with train employees, the Brits haven’t had any reports of planned sympathy strikes. In fact, several other rail companies have promised to assist, and will accept tickets that were purchased for Midland Mainline and Silverlink during the strikes. In the UK, it looks like it will be business as usual.

For updates, see UK train strikes.