The seriously disturbed London underground services prompted Londoners to turn to bikes, buses and black taxis to make their way through the capital during the first day of work of a strike workers.
Rail members, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) have staged the upgrading on remuneration and conditions, including a request for a reduction in hours which constitute a week of work.
The Elizabeth line and the overground were operational, although much busy than usual, said Transport for London (TFL).
Industrial action should continue until 8:00 am BST on Friday.
Cycle Hire Company Lime, which has more than 25,000 bikes across London, said that he had tried to keep as much as possible in service.
Director General Kaan Tas said that the company knew from experience that the overvoltages of demand during strikes and lime had a team on standby to keep vehicles in service.
There were also additional patrols in central London to keep the high -demand areas and available bikes.
Chris Barnes, who goes to the center of Ramsgate London on the Kent coast five days a week, said the strike had caused his daily trip.
He said he had accepted the workers of the tube “were unhappy, but my sympathy was exhausted”.
NHS worker Rachel Edwards said she didn’t agree with RMT’s request for a 32 -hour week, thinking that she was “unrealistic”.
She added: “The country is in such a mess and we must all come together and not go on strike.”
Another traveler, Paul Weallans, described strikes as “a reality of life in London” and hoped that a resolution “would not be long to come”.
EPA‘Just and affordable’
The RMT Union said that its members had not struck in order to disrupt small businesses or the public.
“We believe that a shorter week of work is fair and affordable, especially if we consider that TFL has a surplus of 166 million pounds sterling last year and an annual operating budget of 10 billion pounds sterling.”
The union said there have been 2,000 less employees on the basement since 2018, the members “feeling the tension of extreme quarter-work models”.
London Underground, which manages the network of tubes, described Union requests for a reduction during the 35 -hour week as “simply unaffordable”.
The director of customer operations Nick Dent said that a reduction to a 32 -hour week would cost the company “hundreds of millions”.
He also said that this week’s actions would be “very damaging” for London Underground, because groups of separate workers are revealed in different days.
Information on tube lines is affected by industrial action can be found on the TFL website.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Londoners “would be” tired of the disturbance rightly and that the RMT and the TFL needed “to return to the table, to work together to resolve this dispute in the interest of passengers”.
The mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, said that strike was “bad news for London”.
He said he had encouraged the RMT to negotiate a regulation with TFL to end the strike.
“The TFL said they could not afford to work for less hours for more wages, but they are ready to speak to RMT and other unions whenever there is a dispute and trying to resolve things amicable,” he said.
