Another weekend, another barrage of delays. Over the bonfire night weekend London faced disruptions to its rail services due to now recurrent rail strikes. Although they were not the heaviest the city has faced, several train lines experienced a reduction in frequency of trains, some of which included the Overground between Barking Riverside and Gospel Oak, the c2c line, the Jubilee, District and Hammersmith and City lines.

Beyond the capital, however some passengers were facing disruptions on National Rail Services for differing reasons. At Birmingham International Station, due to an incident on the rail lines between Coventry and Birmingham, passengers were left stranded, and trains from Birmingham were no longer running.

Amaka Nnamani, a commuter, shared her travel experience as she tried to make her way to London after picking up her family from Birmingham Airport. She spoke of the result of the disruptions on Saturday and the unpredictability of the situation:
" Tickets were still available to be bought, though there were no trains running... I bought them while I was at the (Birmingham) airport and when we got to the station, we waited there for around two hours."

Nnamani was directed to a rail replacement bus which took her to Northampton train station. As she and other passengers would discover, there were no trains running from that location; their bus had arrived at 16:45, about 15 minutes after the last one departed.

"The bus that dropped us off left in a hurry, so we were stuck there. I was travelling with my young children, and they were so tired that they fell asleep on their bags on the station floor."

After 4 hours, the family was able to board a bus to London due to the help of an employee, which spelt the end of the ordeal. One of Nnamani’s daughters, when asked about the journey, put it plainly: “awful.”

Though planned National Rail strikes have been called off for the 7th and 9th November, some rail networks may still experience reduced services (e.g West Midlands Railway, which operated on a reduced timetable today).