Millions of passengers face travel chaos as London Underground workers launched a 24-hour strike which will cripple Tube services. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association walked out at 6pm on Sunday in a long-running dispute over jobs and ticket office closures.
They rejected a last-minute offer from Transport for London as well as a plea from Mayor Sadiq Khan to call off the action. The unions say over 800 jobs have been axed as ticket offices closed, claiming staff are being abused by passengers facing queues at ticket machines.
General secretary Manuel Cortes said: "Whilst they accept the offer of more staff is a step in the right direction to restoring Tube safety standards, they do not believe the offer will return those standards with the urgency that is now needed." RMT general secretary Mick Cash added: "Despite the best efforts of your negotiators over many days, London Underground has not put forward acceptable proposal to address the staffing and safety issues."
Transport for London advised passengers there will be a severely reduced service across the Tube network all day on Monday. Most Zone 1 stations are likely to be closed throughout the action, and there will be no Underground services from key interchange stations such as Victoria, King's Cross, Waterloo, Paddington, Euston, Bank and London Bridge.
Piccadilly line services will run between Hammersmith and Heathrow Terminals 1, 2 and 3, but there will be no service to Terminals 4 or 5. There will be no service at all on the Victoria or Waterloo & City lines, and all other lines will be severely affected, with limited services in outer London.
Steve Griffiths, chief operating officer for London Underground, said: "There is no need to strike. We had always intended to review staffing levels and have had constructive discussions with the unions. We agree that we need more staff in our stations and have already started to recruit 200 extra staff."
