09.01.17
London travellers hit by crowding as Tube strike goes ahead
Thousands of Londoners struggled to get to work this morning as station staff strikes on the Underground led to whole lines closing.
TfL warned passengers that no services would run on the Victoria and Waterloo and City lines and on the Piccadilly Line serving Heathrow terminals 4 & 5, while trains on the District, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines would not stop at all stations.
Overcrowding at the stations that were open was so intense that Clapham Junction station had to be evacuated this morning.
Before the 24-hour strike began at 6pm yesterday Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, called for RMT and TSSA to abandon the strike, which is in protest at staff cuts and ticket office closures.
“This strike is going to be a huge inconvenience to commuters, tourists and TfL staff,” he said. “And it is pointless. There is a good deal sitting on the table that will ensure station safety and staffing levels across the Tube network.”
A review by London TravelWatch into the ticket office closures, which began in 2014 under the Fit for the Future plan, rejected the idea of reopening the offices.
However, London TravelWatch agreed a number of new measures were key to rolling out the closures safely, including making staff more visible. TfL has now promised to implement the recommendations.
Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT, said: “This action has been forced on us by savage cuts to jobs that have reduced London Underground to an under-staffed death trap at a time of heightened security and safety alert.”
He also accused TfL of “openly lying” about the number of services it had running and increasing the risk of “a major crushing incident”.
Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA, said: “Too many stations are being been left open without staff, CCTV monitoring which protects against congestion has all but vanished, evacuation procedures are now insecure and the abolition of ticket offices have exposed our members to a sharp spike in levels of personal and physical abuse at work from increasingly frustrated passengers. No wonder they are fearful at work – there is much for them to be worried about.”
Steve Griffiths, London Underground’s chief operating officer, said the London TravelWatch review had made it clear that more staff were needed and they would be recruited.
However, Cortes said that TfL was only returning 200 jobs, which wasn’t enough. He called for safety to be ring-fenced as TfL continues to make cuts, and for central government to reverse plans to cut the London transport grant.
TfL said that it would provide an additional 150 buses during the strike, but warned that the service, along with Dockland Light Railway, London Overground and TfL rail, would be much busier than normal.
(Image: commuters trying to catch buses at Victoria Station, c. Richard Gray from EMPICS Entertainment)
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