How badly will this week's tube strikes affect Londoners?

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2:30London is about to be brought to a standstill as a result of planned tube strikes. So why have TfL and the RMT not reached a deal that all drivers want to sign? And ahead of upcoming council elections, what do London's politicians think? Hi, and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. I'm Tamara Kormournick. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. Coming up, how will Londoners navigate the Tube strikes?

3:13Some of London's Tube drivers are about to embark on a two-day strike that spans across four working days, causing mass disruption to travel in the city ahead of London Marathon this weekend. In this episode, I speak to London Standard journalist Megan Howe, who has been covering the planned strikes. I ask her about which lines will be down, as well as finding suitable alternatives and why the strike is happening in the first place.

3:43I also speak to the London Standard's political editor, Nick Cecil, who has been having conversations with London's politicians across the party spectrum to gauge their position on the Tube worker strikes. But first, here's my chat with Megan. Hi, Megan. Thanks for jumping on The Standard Podcast. It's great to have you. Thank you for having me. So, Megan, the elephant in the room, how bad are these strikes going to be? So, the strikes are set to cause a fair bit of disruption to commuters this week. Transport for London has warned passengers should expect significant disruption across all underground lines.

4:24Drivers belonging to the RMT union are due to walk out from midday on Tuesday, April the 21st, for 24 hours, and again from midday on Thursday, April the 23rd, for 24 hours. But while disruption is expected, it will vary day to day. The impact is not expected to be as severe as the strikes that we saw, obviously, in September last year. TfL says, as we know, we saw commuters walking sort of miles to get to work and huge queues outside entrances to the Elizabeth line and lining up at bus stops. But yes, it's not supposed to be quite as bad as that this week. this week. So which lines are closed completely and which lines are expecting disruption?

5:14So most lines will run on a reduced service except for the Piccadilly and Circle lines which are not expected to run at all this week. There will also be no service on the Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate or on the central line between White City and Aldgate. So unlike previous strikes that began in the early hours, this time services will be affected from midday, which sort of could catch commuters out at the sort of busiest times, with the effects of the strike felt across sort of four working days. Strike action by RMT members, specifically signalling and telecom staff, will impact services on the London overground Windrush line next Thursday.

6:01That's one to note. The strike is expected to cause severe disruption or a total suspension of services between Highbury and Islington and Clapham Junction, as well as West Croydon and Crystal Palace. so while the Elizabeth line the DLR and London trams remain operational they will obviously be extremely crowded so passengers are advised to avoid the wind rush line entirely on Thursday and to check for any residual delays on Friday morning so the key thing to note is to just plan ahead and make sure that you're giving enough time between journeys. Well it sounds like the fight for a Lime bike or a sharer bike will be just as ferocious as it was.

6:48Yeah, I think Lime and Forrest and Bolt and all of the other e-bike operators are expecting an influx of demand this week. And I'm sure that they're preparing for that as well. So you heard it here first, bring your helmets to work. If you haven't tried a Lime bike like myself before, maybe this week is probably the time to do it if you're still thinking of if you can't work from home you're still thinking of getting into the office and if you do use a line bike or other sharer bikes like forest often if you buy a pass if you go into the wallet section of the app and you buy a pass it's often cheaper to travel that way rather than just racking up a minute by minute charge

7:36Megan it's a really choice moment for the tube strikers as it's the London Marathon this weekend so there are more than 50 ,000 runners from around the country and overseas expected to take part in this event and you are one of them I am indeed so um yeah so this is kind of a personal one for me. So for anyone, obviously any runners traveling to the London Marathon running show this week, before the marathon to collect their race number for the day itself, you will be obviously taking into account the strike action and how to get there. So Custom House is your nearest station, which is served by the Elizabeth Line and the DLR.

8:22So that's probably your best bet, But obviously services are likely to be extremely busy. So please do plan ahead. And as per the TCS London Marathon advice, if you can visit the expo on Wednesday and Thursday, please do. Because obviously it's extremely busy on Friday and Saturday before the race. So strike action is not likely to impact those running on the day. But it is important to obviously allow extra time for journeys. if you have any sort of friends or family traveling to see you in the days before the race, if they're heading to hotels, Airbnbs, that sort of thing. Well, hopefully there's not too much disruption and all plans will go ahead.

9:13So Megan, let's talk a bit about the actual strike now and the reasons behind the strike. So we had a strike in September and, you know, some tube drivers have accepted a TFL deal. Some haven't. Those haven't, will be striking. What are the most contentious parts of the new deal that TFL is proposing for tube workers? So the dispute between TFL and RMT is specifically over plans to introduce a four-day working week. So the RMT has rejected an offer for drivers to voluntarily work a four-day week. So under the proposals, most drivers would see their working week reduced from 36 hours to 35 hours.

10:06But contractual hours would remain the same because sort of paid meal breaks would be introduced. So this effectively means the drivers would work sort of longer days, but fewer days each week. and so fewer overall hours each week. So the union says this could increase fatigue and compromise safety. They're instead wanting a 32-hour week over four days, meaning drivers would work three fewer hours each week for essentially the same salary. Right. And you mentioned driver fatigue. There were nerves that the tube was moving in a driverless direction and TFL have debunked that and said for the moment, there's just no business case for doing so.

10:51Megan, how have TFL responded to planned strike action? Because, you know, transport strikes, you know, it looks like they're going to happen and then they're suddenly called off at the last minute. And, you know, I can't ignore the irony that it's taking place over four days, which is the same length as the London Underground bosses, the proposed compressed week. So how have TFL responded to this particular planned strike action? Yes. So TFL has described the strikes as completely unnecessary, as they maintain that the changes are voluntary at present, as I mentioned before, with the four-day working week.

11:29So the changes are currently being trialled on the Bakerloo line on a voluntary basis to test its viability, TFL has said. TfL sources have also said they do believe the strike action will go ahead although there's still time for this to change but it's looking increasingly unlikely the network stresses though that it does remain open to further discussions with RMT union to try and get these strikes called off well thanks so much Megan for the update it's extremely helpful to have all of the information and good luck to all of the marathon runners. Thank you very much for having me. We'll take a quick break here.

12:16Coming up, I speak to the London Standards political editor, Nick Sessel, about the political reaction to the Tube workers' strike. We'll be back here in just a moment.

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13:49Welcome back. So, where do London's politicians stand on the issue of tube workers striking? Here to report back is the London Standards political editor, Nick Sessing. Hi, Nick. Thanks so much for coming back on The Standard Podcast. It's always great to have you. Good morning. So, Nick, you've been gauging reactions to the planned strike action from political party representatives. And I thought we'd start with Labour. So London's councils are predominantly Labour, which is traditionally the party that backs workers and trade unions. So I think there's quite an interesting tension between politicians and the trade unions here.

14:35And naturally, there's more heat on Labour politicians regarding the strikes. So how is Labour navigating these strikes? And to what extent do they support TfL's attempt at a workers' deal? And also back the RMT drivers who are not satisfied with the current deal on the table? Well, certainly ministers and the London Mayor Sir Siddiqun Khan are trying not to get dragged too deeply into this row. So the position from City Hall is that these strikes will be damaging to London, cause disruption and basically it is urging the RMT Union and TfL to get around the table and to resolve the dispute so this industrial action does not take place.

15:25And Nick, let's move on to what other parties have to say. You spoke to the Shadow Transport Secretary, Richard Holden, of the Conservative Party. How hard is he laying into London's leadership? Well, in terms of the political parties, they're roughly three or four positions. And the Conservatives and Reform are largely in the same position. So they are both very critical of the London mayor, but equally very critical of the R &T union. So, for example, Richard Holden, who's the Shadow Transport Secretary, he has called the R &T a militant union over this strike. And what is interesting about that point is that the train drivers union, ASLEF, has accepted this deal.

16:14so and they've actually said it's a great deal so the rmt are a bit out on a limb on this one at the same time mr holden is very critical of um the the mayor the position he's taken is allowing the rmt to call the shots if you go over to reform their london mail candidate uh leila cunningham she says the rmt unit is holding the city hostage with its industrial action and she has attacked Sir Siddi Khan for what she claims is weak leadership on this issue. Nick, is there anyone actually in support of the RMT workers or does it seem like they're being greedy at this point? Well, what's really interesting on this point is that there's one party which has come out very firmly in support of the strikers and that is Zak Polanski's Green Party.

17:10It is arguing that the drivers and the union are raising genuine concerns and that they should be addressed by TfL. Now, why this is a particularly interesting position to take is that we are just weeks away from local elections and there'll be lots and lots of Londoners who are going to suffer disruption and delays to their journeys. You'll be very unhappy about these strikes and Mr Polanski's party is very firmly supporting them. So it's a very stark choice he's made that way. In terms of that, what is interesting is that the Greens are getting lots of cut through politically and in the media.

17:51And part of that is due to their very, very clear messaging. They're not taking kind of balanced, nuanced positions, for example, like Keir Starmer does. So the benefit of that is you get a very strong message coming across. But the downside is that sometimes you might end up on the wrong side of public opinion. And speaking of the council elections that are coming up next month, how much impact do you think the unresolved workers agreement that keeps dragging on and on and causing fairly regular disruption to the tube service will actually have on how Londoners vote? Well, I think it will probably have a limited impact because perhaps somewhat bizarrely, but even at local elections, many people actually vote on national issues.

18:38And so the predominant issue at the May local elections is probably dissatisfaction with the government. So that's why Labour is expected to do very badly and also Keir Starmer's unpopularity. Two other factors which are very interesting coming up in the local elections are the surge in support for the Greens, who are expected to do very well, winning hundreds of council seats across the capital. And reform Nigel Farage's party is also expected to do well in outer London, particularly to the east of the city. And after these May elections, the political map of London will be unrecognisable compared to what has been before.

19:22Previously, it's largely been blue, red, Conservative Labour with a bit of yellow. Afterwards, there'll be at least five parties with a number of councillors across the city, Labour, the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Reform of the Greens, some Residents Association, some pro-Gaza independent candidates. So it's going to be a very, very different picture to what we've seen in the past. well it feels like the whole city is waiting to see what kind of a patchwork we'll have after these elections thanks so much nick for coming on the podcast thank you

20:00and that's the standard for all the latest news head to standard.co.uk if you're new here hit follow and give us a rating if you'd like to get in touch email us at podcasts at standard.co.uk We'll be back here tomorrow morning. See you then.

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