Boris Bikes part of plans to mitigate effects of London tube strike

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Venues and organisers have been racing to run contingency plans and travel advisories on their websites, as London braces itself for the latest in a long-running series of strikes by tube workers. RMT and TSSA rail unions were due to strike at 5pm, 6 September, for 24 hours.

Earls Court’s venue and organiser website was ready with alternative travel advice on bus and mainline train services, for visitors and exhibitors to its two shows running during the stoppage, the Speciality Fine Food Fair and International Jewellery London.

Over at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster, which ramped up its virtual conferencing options during last winter’s cold weather transport chaos, Chief Executive Ernest Vincent, underlines: “The centre will be operating normally throughout the period of the strikes, and indeed throughout any future periods of industrial unrest. Robust contingency planning has been taking place over the past months to enable the venue to operate seamlessly, with arrangements in hand to enable staff to come to work. Non-business critical staff will be encouraged to work remotely; however, the QEIICC does not expect any impact to be felt by its clients from the action.”

London-based training facilities provider, Etc.venues has always made great play of its venues being close to public transport nodes. Head of Marketing David Owen tells CN: “Yes, tube stations are very important to us but all our venues are close to a range of other transport options including overground trains, DLR buses and now the new Boris bikes. We have been keeping organisers appraised of other options and are not expecting too much disruption.”

GM at Ironmongers Hall in The City, Ed Bolling, has asked his staff to arrive early and use mainline services where possible. “We have also contacted our clients to see if we can help with contingency plans on the day,” he adds.

The Barbican’s Samme Allen reports no events during the strike, due to the venue’s annual refurbishment.

GM at the Strand Palace Hotel, David MacRae, describes the strikes as “disappointing for London, with September a busy time for the industry, particularly with Fashion Week coming up. Fortunately, we are well served by Charing Cross so we don’t except any major disruption”.

Director of third-party show organiser Consulting House, Michael Webb, emailed the 23 exhibitors for the NFP technology 2010 show at the Business Design Centre, advising them it would go ahead and suggested alternative travel arrangements.

Webb admitted to a dilemma on whether to contact delegates: “If I write and remind them [visitors], some might think they can’t be bothered. It may do more damage than not communicating to them,” he claimed.

Industry supplier Thorns’ Group Sales Director, Clair Whitecross, adds: “Fortunately for the events sector the proposed action by the RMT and TSSA unions - both on September 6 and subsequently in October and November - has been targeted on early days of the week. While this inevitably causes inconvenience for some event organisers and visitors, it thankfully avoids those days of the week - such as Fridays and Saturdays - that have traditionally seen the greatest concentration of events in the diary. 

“As with previous national and regional transport strikes, the key has always been to plan ahead. Most large-scale jobs have a lead-in period for suppliers lasting days or even weeks. While deliveries would never be made by tube anyway, it’s important to steer deliveries away from strike periods, for fear that roads might become clogged by people being forced to change from their traditional methods of transport.”

Over at the Brit Oval, the venue has responded to the upcoming tube strike by offering a 50 per cent reduction on car parking fees for meetings and events delegates.

6 Sept 10

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