Rail strikes 'costing London restaurant £5,000 a day'

A restaurant manager has revealed the business is losing thousands of pounds a day due to ongoing rail strikes which have left customers struggling to travel.

Around 40,000 RMT union members held a 48-hour strike earlier this week with a second set to take place across 16 - 17 December.

Shoaib Malik, general manager at Indian fine dining restaurant Kahani London, said the walkouts were costing the business around £4,000 - £5,000 a day in lost trade.

"The strikes have significantly affected our bookings – we have lost more than 50 covers [on one strike day]," said Malik. "Friday or Saturday strike days will be even more damaging."

Michael West, operations director at Islington restaurant Jiji, said it was seeing a similar drop in takings.

He added: "Our bookings are about 30% lower than usual and on top of this, we are seeing a large percentage of no-shows each strike day. It's a struggle, to say the least."

Sam's Riverside restaurant in Hammersmith lost 115 bookings across lunch and dinner on one strike day and 140 across another. It comes after the business was forced to close its outdoor terrace by the local council last month, which owner Sam Harrison said would push the business "to the edge".

"[Bookings] will probably drop even further this weekend," Harrison added.

Maurice Abboudi, executive director at K10, which has four sushi restaurants in the city of London, said last week he had budgeted for a 20-25% decrease in sales across strike days.

The RMT is due to meet the rail minister and industry chiefs today (15 December) in a bid to reach a settlement on job security, pay and working conditions on Network Rail and other train operating companies.

Members of the union voted to reject the latest pay offer from company bosses on Monday.

Network Rail has urged passengers to only travel by train "if absolutely necessary" this week.