London’s underground rail network came to a standstill on Monday as staff began a week of strikes over pay and working conditions, disrupting travel for commuters and tourists.
Almost no underground trains are expected to run until Thursday, so that people who take 3.7 million daily journeys on the “Tube” were either working from home or finding other ways to get around.
Forest, which operates 15,000 e-bikes in London, said it experienced four times its usual demand at 9 a.m.
Other commuters switched to buses, or relied on the few other train lines that were working, with most reporting longer journeys.
“The prospect of it being all week, it’s a bit of a nightmare,” said legal counsel Laura Sutton, 46, who was near London Bridge station.
Transport for London, which operates the public transport network, said it had offered staff a 3.4% pay rise, but that the union would only accept a deal that led to a reduction in the working week.
The RMT trade union said the dispute centred on pay, fatigue management, shift patterns and a reduction in hours.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters that he wanted a resolution.
“Londoners who are trying to get to work, trying to drop their kids off in school, businesses who rely on the Tube for work and footfall will be fed up with these strikes,” they said.
Outside the Tower of London, Peter Rolf, 58, from Germany, said his family had decided to cut their two-day trip to London to one, spending more time elsewhere in England.
Patricia Ware, 75, who was visiting from her home near Chicago in the U.S., said it had taken much longer than it should to reach the historic castle.
“We had trouble getting a taxi to get here,” she said.
But she was still enjoying London: “Traveling at best is a hassle, so we just go with the flow.”
-Reuters
