The first London Underground strike since March 2023 has begun, as staff walk out in a dispute over pay and working conditions.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are staging rolling action from Sunday in a dispute centred on pay and fatigue management. The union is calling for a 32-hour week, down from the current 35-hour contractual minimum.
Transport for London (TfL) has offered a 3.4% pay rise but said reducing working hours is “neither practical nor affordable.”
The strike is expected to cause widespread disruption across the capital. Services will run in a limited capacity until 18:00 BST on Sunday, but there will be little or no service from Monday through Thursday. London Overground and the Elizabeth line will operate normally but are expected to be significantly busier, as will bus routes and roads.
A separate dispute on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) means services there will be suspended on Tuesday and Thursday. Due to the rolling nature of the action, London Underground services will not return to normal before 08:00 BST on Friday.
The last Tube strike that shut down the entire network was in March 2023. Last year, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan intervened with £30m from Greater London Authority reserves to avert further strikes, a decision that later drew criticism after he was accused of misleading the London Assembly about the funding until it appeared in budget papers.