London Underground drivers' strike causes further disruption

A London Underground drivers’ strike has brought another day of transport disruption to the capital on Thursday.

Transport for London (TfL) had urged the RMT union to call off the strike, the second 24-hour stoppage this week in a dispute over the introduction of a four-day working week.

No service is expected on the Circle line, Piccadilly line and central sections of the Metropolitan and Central lines on Thursday, with other lines due to start later and finish earlier with less frequent services than usual.

TfL reported severe delays on the District, Bakerloo and Northern line on Thursday morning, with minor delays on several other lines.

Some rail services including the Elizabeth line, London Overground, national rail and DLR services will run as normal. Buses are likely to be crowded and slowed by more busier roads than usual.

While passengers have been warned to check before they travel, TfL said Tuesday’s strike did not close most of the network, after more drivers than expected reported for work.

The proposed change to the drivers’ working week has been strongly welcomed by the rival Aslef union, which represents just over half of Tube drivers in London, but blocked by the RMT.

TfL said that 60% of drivers worked on Tuesday, a figure that suggests many RMT members also did not go on strike.

The union has accused TfL of trying to force through working changes, although TfL has said the proposals are voluntary. No further talks have taken place since negotiations at Acas ended without resolution on Monday.

A TfL spokesperson said: “We are grateful to our customers for their patience while they made their journeys on Tuesday in spite of the disruption on our network caused by the RMT’s industrial action.

“Oyster and contactless card taps were only down by around 10% across the whole day, showing that Londoners and visitors to the city were still able to travel despite the strike action.”

Contactless ticketing data showed that, while Tube journeys were down by 41%, passengers numbers were significantly higher than normal on buses, the Overground and Elizabeth line.

The spokesperson added: “We managed to run services on most lines, with the Jubilee line in particular running almost 90% of normally scheduled kilometres. We continue to urge the RMT to work with us to resolve their questions on the proposed four-day week.”

Services returned to normal without any residual impact from the strike on Wednesday morning, TfL said.

The RMT declined to comment. It has not scheduled any further strikes on the underground. Talks between the union and TfL are expected next week.