No deal on pay despite walkout on Tube

London Underground management and the system’s main trade union remained at loggerheads on Wednesday night after the first day of a 48-hour strike produced serious disruption but failed to halt services entirely.

Peter Hendy, commissioner of Transport for London, claimed London Underground’s ability to run some services on most lines and a near-normal service on two, showed the Rail, Maritime and Transport union’s management was out of touch with members.

However, the RMT insisted management was exaggerating how much of the service it had been able to run and insisted disruption would be worse on Thursday. “The strike has been solidly supported by our members across the Tube network,” Bob Crow, general secretary, said on Wednesday night. “We expect further restrictions on Thursday as both trains and track will not be properly prepared overnight.”

London Underground claimed it had been able to operate 140 of the 420 trains it would normally operate outside peak hours on a weekday. The service was closest to normal on the Northern and Jubilee lines, two of the three lines where track and train maintenance is carried out by Tube Lines, the private contractor. Tube Lines maintenance staff on the Northern, Jubilee and Piccadilly lines were not on strike.

Some other working staff are likely to have been members of Aslef, the underground’s other drivers’ union, although TfL insisted many RMT members had also crossed picket lines to come to work. “We need to thank all those staff that worked on the Tube network and transport services on Wednesday at keeping London moving,” it said.

The strike brought significant extra traffic onto London’s buses and roads, with severe tailbacks still in evidence on many arterial routes at mid-morning and AA Roadwatch showing speeds on some key routes as zero by evening.

Koy Thompson, director of the London Cycling Campaign, said that, while formal counts had not been collated, cycling levels appeared to have been triple those on a normal day.

Beyond the two near-normal lines, service was best on the Victoria line, where a shuttle ran from Victoria to Seven Sisters, and the Bakerloo, where a few trains ran between Queen’s Park and Elephant & Castle. Only the Circle and Waterloo & City lines had no trains.

Despite the RMT warning, TfL insisted that Thursday’s services should be similar to Wednesday’s. The strike, which finishes at 6.58pm on Thursday, is mainly over pay, as well as potential job losses.