Rail strikes 'catastrophic' for cut-off Margate

Margate's "golden mile" attracts crowds in the summer

Continued rail strikes could be "catastrophic" for seaside towns like Margate, a tourism boss has said.

Fran Downton, chief executive of Tourism South East, said many destinations do not have the capacity for lots of visitors travelling by car.

Southeastern said the only services running on Saturday in Kent were from Dartford and Ashford to London Bridge.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union are on strike over pay, job losses and conditions.

Ms Downton said many tourists would chose not to travel.

"Once the journey becomes too complicated, some people will just, at best, choose an alternative destination, where somewhere else would benefit from their spend, however for Margate it will be fairly catastrophic," she said.

'Devastating'

"We are just recovering [from the pandemic] and it's been two very, very hard years, and we really do need a good year.

"The tourism businesses can only tolerate [rail strikes] for a certain period of time."

Trendy cafes are now a feature of Margate's Old Town

She added it would be "devastating" to see prolonged strikes.

People would be forced into their cars and lots of our destinations just don't have the capacity or the infrastructure to take vast amounts of cars.

"Visitors will ultimately take the decision not to travel and not to take that day out, and that will really impact the visitor economy across the whole of the region."

Services across England, Wales and Scotland are affected, with those that are running only open between 07:30 and 18:30 BST.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union is looking for a pay rise of at least 7% and assurances of no compulsory redundancies.

Alicia Andrews, Southeastern's commercial director, said: "We are recommending that people only travel if it's necessary. There is a much more limited service and only on three routes. The service will start later and end earlier.

"We would like to apologies to any one who's plans for a day out have been disrupted."

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