London hit by second day of Tube strike disruption this week | London Underground
A strike by London Underground drivers led to another day of transport disruption in the capital on Thursday.
Transport for London (TfL) had called on the RMT union to cancel the strike, which was the second 24-hour work stoppage of this week, due to a dispute over the introduction of a four-day working week.
While no service is expected on the middle sections of the Circle line, Piccadilly line and the Metropolitan and Central lines on Thursday, other lines are expected to start later and end earlier with less frequent services than normal.
TfL reported serious delays on the District, Bakerloo and Northern lines on Thursday morning, with minor delays on some other lines.
Some rail services will operate as normal, including the Elizabeth line, London Overground, national rail and DLR services. Buses are likely to be crowded and slow on busier-than-usual roads.
Passengers are warned to check before traveling, while TfL said Tuesday’s strike did not close most of the network after more drivers than expected reported for work.
The proposed change to drivers’ working week was strongly welcomed by the rival Aslef union, which represents just over half of London’s tube drivers, but was blocked by the RMT.
TfL said 60% of drivers were working on Tuesday; This figure shows that many RMT members did not go on strike either.
The union accused TfL of trying to force the working changes, but TfL said the offers were voluntary. There have been no further talks since talks at Acas collapsed on Monday.
A TfL spokesman said: “We are grateful to our customers for their patience with their journeys on Tuesday despite the disruption to our network caused by RMT industrial action.
“Oyster and contactless card intercepts were only down around 10% for the full day, showing Londoners and visitors to the city were still able to travel despite the strike action.”
Contactless ticketing data showed that although subway ridership was down 41%, ridership on buses, the Overground and the Elizabeth line was significantly higher than normal.
The spokesman added: “We have managed to service most lines, with the Jubilee line in particular covering almost 90% of the normally planned kilometres. We continue to encourage RMT to work with us to resolve their issues in the proposed four-day week.”
TfL said services were back to normal on Wednesday morning with no impact from the strike.
RMT declined to comment. He did not plan another attack on the underground. Talks between the union and TfL are expected to take place next week.
