London Commuters Left Stranded by Train, Tube Strikes


London Commuters Left Stranded by Train, Tube Strikes

TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Hundreds of thousands of commuters faced rushed hour chaos Friday morning when unions staged hugely disruptive strikes on two routes at the same time.

Around a third of services on South Western Railway – Britain’s biggest network – were cancelled this morning as the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) started a 48-hour walkout in a long-running dispute over the role of guards on trains.

It came as members of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, staged a separate strike on the London Underground’s Central Line — closing most of the busy east-west route through the capital. The Central is the busiest line on the Tube network, carrying 800,000 passengers a day, The Times reported.

The strike, which was staged over a breakdown of industrial relations after the sacking of a driver for a safety breach, also led to the shutdown of the Waterloo & City Line.

Last- gasp talks designed to avert the strike collapsed without an agreement.

The action was staged despite a pledge by Sadiq Khan, Labor’s London mayor, that no more Tube strikes would be staged under his leadership at City Hall. Today’s action was the 13th since he took office. Last week, the Piccadilly Line was also severely disrupted by an RMT strike.

Rail and Tube passengers reported “massive overcrowding” outside stations and on platforms today as commuters struggled to find other routes to work. Extra buses were put into service by Transport for London to relieve congestion on the network, including a fleet of 1960s Route masters.

Writing on Twitter, one commuter said: “Massive overcrowding issues because of Central Line Tube strike. Couldn’t get an overland [train], now can’t get on Tube. Looks like need to get away quick tonight — if I ever get to work.”

The Aslef strike was called after a driver opened doors on a train while it was in a tunnel.

Finn Brennan, an Aslef branch organizer, said: “Despite our best efforts, we were unable to make real progress at Acas talks on the Central Line dispute today. Management still refuse to move on the key issues in this dispute.

“Bizarrely, they are refusing to hold a review into the dismissal of a driver until Friday afternoon, 14 hours after the strike will have started.”

Nigel Holness, the director of network operations for London Underground, said: “I am disappointed that Aslef has chosen to go ahead with this needless strike action, despite positive discussions over recent days.

“In those discussions we have made good progress on resolving most of their issues, but have not been able to agree on the reinstatement of a train driver who was dismissed for a serious breach of our safety regulations.

“The safety of our customers and staff is paramount and something we will never compromise. We remain open for discussions on how to resolve this dispute, and apologize to our customers for the unnecessary disruption.”

The RMT strike on South Western has been called over plans by the train company to introduce driver-controlled trains. Under the system, control of the carriage doors transfers from the guard to the driver. The guard’s job becomes more about dealing with the needs of passengers.

The RMT claims that this is a safety risk and wants a guarantee that no train will operate without a second “safety-critical” person on board.

However, the government has said that driver-only operation has been effectively used in Britain for 30 years and had been repeatedly declared safe by rail watchdogs.

The RMT has already called similar strikes on Southern, Mersey rail, Northern, Greater Anglia and ScotRail. It has reached an agreement on Mersey rail, Greater Anglia and ScotRail, but the action is proceeding on the other networks.

Tomorrow, the RMT will stage a second day of action on South Western. It will also strike on Northern Rail. South Western, which carries 230 million passengers a year, was forced to cancel 550 trains today and will cancel a 750 tomorrow. Northern will cancel about half of its services on Saturday.

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