Important news for STANSTED passengers.

Earlier this week, in fact whilst I was meeting up with RyanairGrad, I received news of the result of a ballot for strike action on National Express East Anglia. For those of you outside of the UK, also those with limited railway knowledge, National Express East Anglia operate the Stansted Express service from Stansted Airport to London Liverpool Street.

I'm not going to go into it on here and start any argument about what it's all about, but I would suggest you ignore the "company's version" of it's all over pay. Trust me it's NOT, especially in these bad economic times, at least at ground level staff we are living in the reality and know we are lucky to have a job at the moment. Enough said.... Back on what I wanted to say.

Strike dates, are currently (all subject to change, if there are further positive talks, obviously)

00:01 30th July to 23:59 31st July
00:01 6th August to 23:59 7th August
00:01 13th August to 23:59 14th August
00:01 20th August to 23:59 21st August

So, for those who are not quite sure what this means, a brief explanation.... The strike action only affects shifts that START between the times stated. So for the start times, trains on the evening / early hours of 29th/30th July, 5th/6th, 12th/13th and 19th/20th August, should be unaffected, as most "night shifts" start before midnight. As such you "may" get a few early morning trains on strike days, due to the night shift drivers finishing their shifts, this depends on what the company wants to run, as there would be no morning drivers to take over the trains.

Likewise the days AFTER the strikes END, the early morning trains may be affected as the night shift drivers would not be at work, these generally operated the first few trains from London to Stansted, to be taken over by morning drivers.

It's not an ideal situation, obviously, but I hope I have given you sufficient warning of this. I wouldn't like to see someone on here stranded beacuse of this and hope you would be able to take a different route into London or back to the airport.

why does the ground staff in STN goes on on Strike? this is most developping Airport in the UK on theses tough days in an Economic Recession .

Like here in France ADP ( Paris Airports ) are loosing passengers numbers as Beauvais BVA is gaining more Passengers with RYR and WIZZAIR .

It is NOT the ground staff at STN that are striking. It's the company that operates the Stansted Express train service into London Liverpool Street. I posted this to enable people on here that maybe travelling to and from STN on the above days to seek an alternative form of transport, rather than turn up at the railway station and find there are no trains to the airport and then end up potentially missing their flight.

OK, it seems the strikes on Stansted Express, the train service to and from Stansted Airport into London, will be going ahead from tomorrow until Saturday morning, the revised timetable (using managers can be found at the bottom of the page here

http://www.nationalexpresseastanglia.com/train_times/train_service_alterations/industrial_action_altered_timetables

In short, thery are looking to run ONE train an hour, leaving London or Stansted at xx.55 (I.E. 5 minutes to the hour). First train FROM London will be the 0655 and the LAST train FROM Stansted will be at 2255.

If anyone is flying into STN, or returning to STN, these services WILL be busy, get to the station early, and if possible head towards the front of the train, there will be more seats, EVERYONE gets on at the rear of the train at STN and London. If you get there at the last minute, WALK THROUGH THE TRAIN! They will have 12 coaches, and there is ALWAYS more seats at the front of the trains, no-one walks the length of the train, but if you do you'll be the first ones up to the departure area!

You will either walk the length of the train at one end of your journey, it's the way the stations are laid out, the EXITS are at the front of the train. You'll always get a seat at the front of the train.