Passengers hit out on Tuesday as the worst Tube strike in more than five years brought the first of four days of chaos to the London Underground.
Thousands of early morning commuters were caught unaware by the RMT walk-out and were forced to cram onto buses as advice to work from home went unheeded.
A miserable morning, with roads heavily congested, was made worse by a near five per cent rise in Transport for London fares and a 3.8 per cent hike in national rail fares.
A Tube boss described the RMT as “turkeys voting for Christmas” and said the union’s decision to call 10,000 members out on strike would worsen TfL’s already dire finances.
Many passengers vented frustration that their commute had been hampered just as they began returning to the office following the pandemic.
Nine of the 11 Tube lines were completely shut with only the District and Central lines able to run shuttle services at their outer extremes, where the lines ran above ground.
Sean Reynolds, 40, who works in IT in Holborn said: “This is unacceptable. I have only just started going back to the office full time. Fares are going up and now this, it’s just not on.”
Silvia Perreira, 28, who works in retail said: “I’m in a job where I can’t work from home. Things are hard enough already with the cost of living going up these strikers what’s are they doing? Trying to make people poorer?”
Damian Callaghan, 38, an insurance worker said: “This is terrible for the economy. The Tube workers should be ashamed.”
Laura Diggins, 21, a receptionist, said: “Why do they have to punish commuters? I want the Tube workers to have a fair deal but this is a nightmare journey now.”
The RMT, which called 24-hour strikes on Tuesday and on Thursday over the threat to staff pensions and the loss of up to 600 station staff posts, said the action was “100 per cent solid”.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the strike had been caused by the “political failure” of London mayor Sadiq Khan to shield TfL’s workforce from Government-ordered cuts.
Mr Khan said the action was “very disappointing”. He said: “This action is causing misery for Londoners and businesses alike and damaging TfL at the worst possible time.”
Andy Lord, TfL’s chief operating officer, described the walkout as “completely unnecessary” and “very frustrating” and appealed to the RMT to abandon Thursday’s strike.
Challenged on LBC whether TfL’s work from home advice was akin to “turkeys voting for Christmas”, Mr Lord said: “I think it is the RMT that are turkeys voting for Christmas.”
Speaking to the Standard, Mr Lord said “no proposals” had been tabled to change pension benefits. He said TfL had a “pretty good relationship” with the RMT, of which 4,900 members – 94 per cent of those taking part in the ballot – voted to strike.
Mr Lord said: “The challenge here is that some of their more militant membership and union leadership seem to believe that no change and the status quo is the only way forward.
“The Government have already provided £5bn to TfL. We need to become more efficient as an organisation.
“The frustration for all of us today is that the RMT are taking this action when we have not tabled anything [on pensions].
“I really want the RMT to talk with us and work with us. They have not published any further [strike] dates at this point. I encourage them to consider calling off Thursday’s strike. All it’s doing is making our financial position worse.”
The strikes, which end at a minute to midnight, are expected to cause knock-on problems until around 9am tomorrow and on Friday.
Dee Corsi, chief operating officer at New West End Company, said: "We strongly encourage RMT to call off these strikes to help commuters and business owners resume normality after an immensely difficult two years."
