Tube strikes – live: London Underground grinds to a halt as TfL staff walk out

Thursday’s Tube strike rules out most London Underground journeys, and some Overground services, with disruption expected into Friday morning. To avoid the Tube, travellers in London can take advantage of:

• Bicycle: As well as TfL’s official Santander bikes, available for hire in banks across London (from £1.65 for 30 minutes), you have Lime Bikes, TIER bikes and scooters, HumanForest bikes, Dott bikes and e-scooters and Swapfiets.
• Bus: While London’s bus network will be operational on Thursday, it is expected to be very busy, especially at rush hour (roughly 7.30am-10am and 5pm-7pm).
• Boat: London’s riverboat services, such as Uber Boat and the Woolwich Ferry, are running on Thursday.
• Walk: London’s central sights and neighbourhoods are surprisingly close. Check out TfL’s walking map for timed minutes between each stop.

The assistant general secretary of the RMT union, John Leach, has said that future strikes are likely if discussions with TfL do not improve.

London’s transport network has been largely shut down by today’s RMT and Unite strikes, with hardly any Tube services running and most stations closed.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Mr Leach said: "Our message to the commuters is we regret the inconvenience caused by Tube strikes, of course we do.

"But I also say to them, if your pension or your job was on the line, or your contract was being ripped in front of you... you would expect your union to stick together to defend your pension, your job and your contract, and that’s all we’re doing."

Of possible future industrial action, he added: "I hope not, I very much hope not, but if there’s no progress made around the table on these issues in discussions with the management and they continue to attack our pensions, jobs and contracts, the answer is yes."

The Tory party has taken to Twitter to blame London Mayor Sadiq Khan for today’s transport disruption, posting: “ Tubes are empty today as millions of Londoners suffer yet another day of strikes thanks to Sadiq Khan and Labour. They’re backing the unions causing this chaos.”

The RMT retweeted the sentiment, responding: “The tubes are empty today because of the Long-Term Funding Settlement the DfT [Department for Transport] imposed upon TfL.

“TfL’s attacks on jobs and workers’ conditions are a direct consequence of your continued attempts to make workers pay for your own incompetence and ineptitude. Own it!”

Today’s Tube strikes, also affecting the London Overground, are organised by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, better known as the RMT Union. More than 1,000 Unite members are also on strike.

The 24-hour walkout, which will also affect services on Friday morning, is due to a dispute over job cuts and changes to staff pensions.

On Thursday the union said last-minute talks had broken down. It said that its members have asked TfL bosses to “suspend the implementation of 600 station job cuts until the end of this year”, and “make a clear statement that they would not agree to detrimental attacks on Tube workers’ pensions”.

It said in a statement that “London Underground has sought to impose new policies that it says ‘maximise flexibility’ by giving managers more power to change shift times and locations, sweating their remaining staff harder”.

“ These attacks are deeply unfair and completely unnecessary. London Underground workers are being targeted by a government that is trying to drive down workers’ living standards. The Mayor and TfL know that these attacks are wrong,” it added.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “TfL is needlessly attacking our members’ pay and pensions, which Unite simply can’t accept. The workers have the full support of their union in fighting these attacks.

“TfL must stop behaving like a race-to-the-bottom employer and put forward an offer that is acceptable to our members.”

TfL’s chief operating officer Glenn Barton said on Tuesday: ““I would like to apologise to our customers for any disruption caused by Thursday’s industrial action.

“We met with the RMT and Unite this week to urge them to call off this Tube strike as no proposals to change pensions or conditions have been made.

“Unfortunately, no agreement could be reached but we remain open for discussions.”

Most Tube lines are completely suspended this morning, with TfL warning: “There will be limited or no Tube services running.”

However, there is a reduced service running on the Central Line: between Hainault - Woodford, Hainault - Liverpool Street, Epping - Leytonstone, White City - Ealing Broadway and North Acton - West Ruislip.

Infrequent trains are running on the District Line between Dagenham East and West Ham, with the rest of the line closed.

The top branches of the Northern Line are seeing some trains: between High Barnet and East Finchley, Finchley Central and Mill Hill East, and Edgware and Golders Green.

There is a good service on the Elizabeth Line, although TfL has warned that it expects the line to be extremely busy. Trains will also not call at stations between Bond Street and Whitechapel before 07:00 and after 22:30 on Thursday.

Thursday morning saw commuters walking past shuttered Tube stations as the strike gets underway.

Here are the latest images from across London:

Advance rail tickets are now on sale for the full festive season on the leading train operators.

However, festive travellers could see their trains disrupted by strikes.

Simon Calder has more:

As strikes take place on Thursday on the London Underground and Overground-what rights do you have if your pre-booked train is cancelled due to the strikes?

Here’s everything you need to know:

Thursday’s strike is the latest in a wave of rail strikes voted on and called by UK transport unions, to protest against alleged low pay and unfair working conditions.

While each union has its own reasons and demands when it comes to the industrial action, there are common elements.

Lucy Thackray explains:

Mayor Sadiq Khan made an 11th hour appeal on Wednesday to the RMT union to call off Thursday’s Tube strike.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, Mr Khan said: “Nobody wants to see strike action and once again I urge the unions to call off this action and to work with TfL to find a resolution.

“I’ve been clear that punishing Londoners and London’s dedicated and brilliant transport workers is wrong. This is not something I wanted in the deal and I will not support any unfair changes to pensions that attack the terms and conditions of transport workers.

“At this stage, no decisions have been made and any reform would be subject to extensive consultation with all stakeholders, including TfL staff and trade unions.”