Which countries and capital cities suffered the most from transport strikes in 2015?

London commuters are experiencing a new tube strike today & tomorrow on the Waterloo & City line, it is the 3rd London Underground strike in 2 months. Although this strike is not disturbing the entire network, it reminds that Europe faced many transport strikes so far in 2015. Germany experienced in May the longest train strike in its history, French & Spanish air traffic control strikes hit millions of European travellers and London faced the first full shut down of the London Underground for 13 years – Which countries and capital cities suffered the most from transport strikes in 2015?

The travel metasearch engine Gopili.co.uk has studied the number of days of transport strikes with national impact that occurred in the 5 major European countries (UK, France, Spain, Germany & Italy) as well as the number of days of transport strikes for their capital cities (London, Paris, Madrid, Berlin & Rome). The study focus on strikes affecting a significant part of the country / several cities for the European ranking and on strikes causing important travel disruptions in the city for the capitals ranking.

Here are the main results of the study:

• British travellers have been the least affected by transport strikes with national impact so far this year with only 10 days of travel disruptions
• Spanish travellers are the most affected by transport strikes in Europe (48 days) ahead of Germans (22 days), Italians & French (21 days)
• London commuters experienced 7 days of travel disruptions, twice less than Rome’s ones (16 days)
• Coach and taxi less affected by strikes than other transportation modes

British travellers have been the least affected by transport strikes in 2015

> See the list of transport strikes per country

With only 10 days of transport strikes with national impact so far in 2015, British travellers have been luckier than their neighbours. In fact, UK is the only country among the 5 major European ones that did not faced either pilots or air traffic controllers’ strikes this year. British people are also the only ones who did not get nationwide rail strikes as the 8 days of First Great Western strikes only had an impact in west of England & Wales and the national rail strike was called off. The other transport strike with national impact in UK was a 2 days security staff strike at 11 Scottish airports.

Spanish have been the most affected by transport strikes in 2015

The study reveals that Spanish travellers are the Europeans who have been the most affected by transport strikes with 48 days of travel disruptions so far this year, including 31 days of Ryanair baggage handlers strike in Madrid. Surprisingly, the second country the most affected is Germany with 22 days of transport strikes with national impact, especially because of the 10 days of Deutsche Bahn national strikes as well as 8 days of Germanwings and Lufthansa pilots’ strikes. France and Italy share the 3rd place with 21 days of transport strikes.

Coach and taxi are less affected by strikes than other transportation modes

When looking at the transport strikes with national impact per transportation mode, the study reveals that there has not been any days of coach strikes in Europe so far and there was only 2 days of taxi drivers strike this year. As a source of comparison, there was a total of 83 strikes days affecting air travel and 41 days impacting rail travel.

London commuters experienced a lot of travel disruptions but still less than Rome’s ones

London commuters have experienced a lot of travel disruptions so far in 2015 with 4 days of tube strike, 2 days of bus strike and 1 day of taxi drivers strike for a total of 7 days of travel disruptions. The ranking does not include the current 2-days tube strike as it is not causing important travel disruptions in the city. Madrid did not experienced any transport strike so far while Rome and Berlin have been particularly hit with respectively 16 and 10 days of travel disruptions.
> See the list of transport strikes per capital

About this study

The study has been made taking into account only strikes affecting a large number of travellers and several cities for the country ranking. Regarding the capital ranking, the study only took into account strikes causing important travel disruptions in the city. For both rankings, 2 strikes happening the same day count for one day of strike. This study has been made by Gopili.co.uk, a multimodal travel search engine which enables users to compare all transportation options for domestic and international journeys: plane, train, coach and ride share. Gopili is the European brand of the French startup KelBillet.