[OLD]London Tube strikes – live: Most Underground lines suspended as walk-outs disrupt travel across capital
London Underground staff are striking on 1 and 3 March
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Your support makes all the difference.The entire Tube network is currently disrupted as London Underground staff stage the first of two 24-hour strikes set for this week, on Tuesday and Thursday respectively.
Today’s walkout has left nearly all Tube lines completely suspended, with commuters advised to work from home where possible. It began at 12.01am and will end at 11.59pm tonight.
The RMT union has blamed the dispute on “a financial crisis at LUL (London Underground Limited)”, which general secretary Mick Lynch described as being “deliberately engineered by the government”.
Transport for London (TfL) has warned travellers to expect “severe disruption to all lines and stations throughout the day [and the] possibility of no London Underground services.”
A second 24-hour strike begins a day later, running from 12.01am on Thursday, 3 March.
Commuters are encouraged to walk or cycle where possible; London buses, TfL Rail, National Rail, DLR, London Overground and Tram services will all be in operation, but are expected to be busier than usual.
Passengers have been advised to allow more time for their journeys this week due to the disruption.
Heathrow bus bargains
With the Tube network effectively closed, travellers between central London and Heathrow airport are mainly relying on trains and taxis.
The cheapest rail link between the UK’s main aviation hub and London Paddington is £11.60, taking around 35 minutes. Onward travel from Paddington is also tricky, since it is some distance from the heart of London.
Megabus has hourly coaches between Heathrow and London Victoria, which are selling for £9.88 for the 50-minute journey. National Express is selling seats at either £7.50 or £10 for its half-hourly services.
For any destination in south London, the X26 bus from Heathrow costs just £1.65 and serves East and West Croydon station, which have links to a wide range of locations by overground and tram.
Water ways
During the Tube strike some London commuters are avoiding the crowds on buses and overground trains by taking ferries or sightseeing vessels along the River Thames.
Thames Clippers, branded as Uber Boat, has a 23-stop route between Woolwich Royal Arsenal in the east and Putney in the west.
The full distance costs £13.50 one way and can be paid by contactless or Transport for London’s Oyster card.
City Cruises has departures about every 50 minutes on a route running from Westminster, the London Eye and the Tower of London to Greenwich. The one-way online fare is £11.75.
With Tubes out of action, many Londoners walk and cycle to work
With today’s Tube strike seeing nearly all of London’s underground network closed, Londoners are sharing their more creative commutes, on two feet or two wheels.
“Today I walked from Liverpool Street to Bond Street AND BACK for a 30 minute audition. But I loved every second of it and loved being back (my legs aren’t so happy)” wrote Roseanna Tilley.
Google Maps estimates that this journey takes just over an hour each way, compared to the usual 13-minute Tube ride.
“Cycling to work in the rain is normally annoying, but with the tube strikes today it’s turned into a smug feeling,” tweeted Callum Tucker.
“Shaved five minutes off my commute this morning by cycling instead of taking the tube… wonder what my excuse not to cycle tomorrow will be,” added Marcus Hall on Twitter.
Pound-per-mile train ticket highlights absurdity of rail pricing
An “anytime” rail ticket on the 118-mile journey between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads has risen to £1 per mile, Simon Calder reveals.
In a comment for The Independent, the travel correspondent points out: “The ‘Didcot Dodge’ cuts the price by better than 40 per cent.
“Passengers buy one ticket to Didcot Parkway and a second from there for the rest of the journey. As long as the train pauses at the Oxfordshire junction (and almost all do), this perfectly legal hack cuts the fare to something more manageable: £70.50.
“This example sums up the shambles in rail fares that this government, like its predecessors, has yet to address.
“Ticket prices are full of anomalies. While those of us with time on our hands can circumvent eye-watering fares with ease, infrequent passengers will take one look at that £1-per-mile rate from Bristol to London and decide to drive or stay at home instead.
“The only possible way to preserve the network at its present level, let alone fund increased services, is to entice people out of their cars. They will expect fair and rational ticket prices for tickets, and reliable services.
“Unless ministers and union bosses accept the new reality, the railways are set for a long, painful decline.”
Read my full analysis of rail fares below:
Rail fares are a shambles – ministers can no longer ignore that fact | Simon Calder
The only possible way to preserve the network at its present level – let alone fund increased services – is to entice people out of their cars, argues Simon Calder
RMT has ‘parallel universe levels of delusion’ says right-wing think tank
The Institute of Economic Affairs, a right-wing think tank, has accused the RMT union of “parallel universe levels of delusion” in striking at a time when Transport for London (TfL) is in such financial straits.
The institute’s energy and infrastructure analyst, Andy Mayer, said: “TfL’s fare income has fallen from £4.8bn to £1.6bn because of the pandemic.
“Working patterns have changed and a full return to prior levels of commuting is unlikely.
“The RMT’s decision to strike for job, wage and benefits protection is parallel universe levels of delusion that will simply harm TfL further by encouraging commuters to stay at home.
“Those most impacted are the key workers, generally on lower incomes, who must travel to provide vital services. This is a privileged attack, by a highly protected public sector elite on working people.
“Shame on the RMT.”
The union, meanwhile, tweeted: “10,000 tube workers are taking strike action today because these cuts threaten the safety and the very future of the Tube in London at a time when we need to encourage mass use of safe, clean and sustainable public transport.”
Thameslink still operating through central London
One line is still carrying passengers through central London: the Thameslink north-south railway. The central core starts at London St Pancras International, hub for Eurostar, East Midlands Railway and Southeastern high-speed services to Kent.
It runs through Farringdon, usually connected to the Metropolitan and Circle lines of the Tube, and City Thameslink to Blackfriars.
This unique station straddles the River Thames, with entrances on both north and south banks.
Thameslink serves many stations in north and south London, including West Hampstead, Finsbury Park, Elephant & Castle and Wimbledon. It also links Luton and Gatwick airports via central London.
Trains are operating about every five minutes in each direction on the central core.
Londoners hoping to travel east-west through the centre of the capital should, by now, be able to do so on the Elizabeth Line – the name given to the £19bn Crossrail scheme.
But the botched project is currently over three years behind schedule. One reason for the funding crisis at Transport for London is the lack of expected revenue from the new line.
It is hoped that the link from London Paddington to Liverpool Street may be open by the end of June, 42 months late.
‘Dangerous’ crowding at Willesden Junction, reports commuter
One London commuter has captured video showing how the Tube strike closures are also affecting bus and overground services.
“Total chaos at Willesden Junction as trains aren’t stopping at Wembley, Kenton etc but this isn’t advertised elsewhere on the overground,” wrote Sarah Batten.
“Everyone trying to pile on buses, no staff monitoring, this crowding could get dangerous.”
Ms Batten later tweeted an update saying her commute had taken more than two-and-a-half hours.
Meanwhile, a Reddit user posted this image of crowds outside a bus at London Liverpool Street.
“I left nice and early because I was skeptical the bus into Chancery Lane would take the proposed one hour journey,” wrote user ALondonKiwi in the caption.
“Glad I can just sit in one spot but its definitely going to take much longer to get to work. Not sure I left enough buffer for a Pret!”
Heathrow arrivals face travel chaos
Passengers arriving at Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, face much higher fares to reach central London – with destinations beyond Paddington station difficult to reach.
The airport is telling passengers: “Industrial action is taking place on the London Underground network on Tuesday 1 and Thursday 3 March 2022 therefore services to and from Heathrow will be severely disrupted.
“Morning services on following days (2 and 4 March) may also be affected.
“We recommend passengers use Heathrow Express or TfL Rail services to and from London Paddington as an alternative.”
The maximum Tube fare from Heathrow to anywhere within Greater London is £5.50.
On TfL Rail’s stopping services from the airport to London Paddington, the fare increased today to £11.60, more than twice the Tube fare.
On the faster Heathrow Express, the fare is £25 – nearly five times as much as the Underground.
Once at Paddington station, travellers’ problems are only beginning.
Hundreds of people are in the queue for taxis to other parts of the capital.
Fares soar on public transport across London
The Tube strike means that would-be Underground passengers have not yet experienced the 4.8 per cent average fares rise that takes effect today on Transport for London services.
It is the highest increase in a decade, since then-mayor Boris Johnson hiked fares by an average of six per cent.
Most adult “pay-as-you-go” fares, payable by Oyster stored value cards or contactless credit and debit cards, have risen by between 10p and 30p.
The adult pay as you go fare for a journey in the central Zone 1 is £2.50 – up 10p, or 4.2 per cent.
Outside Zone 1, a trip within a single zone costs £1.60.
On the buses and trams, the standard fare has risen by 6.5 per cent to £1.65 – though connections can be made within an hour at no extra charge.
The daily cap for bus and tram rides is set at £4.95, meaning the fourth and subsequent journeys incur no extra charge.
The highest fare rises are for the Emirates Air Line cable car in east London. The journey across the River Thames rises from £5 to £6.
“A Tube strike is the last thing hospitality businesses need” – UK Hospitality boss
The chief executive of UK Hospitality, has condemned today’s Tube strike by members of the RMT union.
Kate Nicholls tweeted: “A slow frustrating start to the day trying to get into London for various meetings in Westminster and to speak at three industry events.
“The city’s recovery is reliant upon people being confident to travel and a Tube strike is the last thing hospitality businesses need.|
Ms Nicholls is also co-chair of the London Tourism Recovery Board, which is seeking to rescue the capital’s once-thriving tourist industry.
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