Rail News: Rock solid’ strikes reduce London to a crawl

Commuters from Essex faced tube misery this morning due to the strike by workers on the London Underground.

A full shutdown came into force on Thursday, and TfL has warned that disruptions to the British capital’s public transport could continue into Friday.

London Underground’s managing director Mike Brown apologized for the disruption but insisted it was a “remarkably fair” pay offer.

Thousands of workers launched a 24-hour walkout last night which will disrupt services until Friday morning.

There is no strike on the London Overground, DLR, TfL Rail or trams, which will all operate a normal service.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “”The industrial relations situation on the Tube has sunk to an almost unprecedented low with all four unions united and balloting for action over pay and working arrangements due to be ushered in under the guise of the mayor’s “night Tube” vanity project in just 10 weeks’ time””.

Extra buses and river boat services are being lined up, Transport for London said, but all services and the road network are expected to be very busy.

“The tube staff work really hard”, said Silvertown resident Sakina Adam, 29.

“We’ve wasted three months in negotiations that failed to address staff concerns and it’s essential for London that there’s no repeat and that puts the ball firmly in LU’s court”.

“The night tube will go ahead”. However, in the short term we will ask a few train operators to do more.

“We are ready and willing to be at Acas tomorrow morning to sort this out”.

The motion says that uncontrolled and unmanaged night work can have a serious impact on the physical and mental health and well-being of employees as well as a detrimental impact on family and social life.

Britain’s prime minister and London’s mayor have condemned the strike by four major unions as unjustified.

However, earlier in the day, the drivers’ union representative Brennan had said he remained pessimistic about the prospects of an agreement, telling the Financial Times that “London Underground hasn’t changed its position at all“.

“This is an illegitimate strike as they haven’t put this new deal to their members”.

“The fact is that we are going to get on with the night Tube and ultimately this strike will achieve nothing”.

Indeed, tube strikes do affect the London economy; that’s exactly why they’re effective.

“Anyone relying on the Tube for onward connections should consider leaving as soon as possible”. “This strike is unnecessary”.

Travellers there have described “absolute carnage” as they tried to get into work.

This offer was rejected by unions on Wednesday.

Just make sure you have a newspaper, music, book or some other form of entertainment and a drink or snack with you to keep you occupied and stem that commuter rage. Her mission: “How can we run our services better and serve our customers better using data?”

Protesters from the ASLEF and RMT unions stand at the locked gates of Brixton underground station during a tube strike in London.