It's tube strike day - again

The tube map isn't look that healthy this morning as the strike did its best to ruin the commute for many people this morning.

The coloured lines are the ones affected by strike action

Most noticeable for me is that while the Jubilee Line is largely unaffected as far as trains are concerned, the station at Canary Wharf has been closed. The moment of delight as commuters find a train that works, only to be hit by the fact that one of the more isolated locations on the network is inaccessible save by switching to the DLR.

The Central Line looks totally suspended, and while the Northern Line seems fine in the suburbs, it is when you get to the destinations in the City that a slew of stations are closed, leading to lengthy above ground journeys. The Boris Bikes are going to be busy.

The strike officially ends at 6:30pm, but we wont see things returning to normal until much later this evening, so that is two rush-hours affected.

Boris has again this morning called for changes to the strike laws so that you need not just a majority vote in favour of strike from those who choose to vote, but from the majority of those who are eligible to vote.

Most of the ballots in favour of strike action on the tube network are called by a minority of the potential electorate, but when political elections are often decided by a minority of the electorate, can you implement a different criteria on unions?

Update: A press release from TfL this morning is headlined "Unions fail to bring London to a halt", and then admits that nearly 70% of the tube trains are not running due to the strike.

However, three-quarters of the stations are open.

As it is the stations that will be affected by the planned staff reductions, and not the tubes, there is a slight question mark hanging over why the majority of the stations staff are not supporting the strike - while the majority of the train drivers are.

London Underground; Tube Posted by IanVisits Monday, October 04, 2010 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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