All London tube/Underground lines shut down tomorrow and Thursday

Wow has that happened before to that scale?

nope... they're grumpy

TfL have been losing money hand over fist to the point of making major cuts to bus services and announcing plans to close one of the tube lines. Now they are at one fell swoop firing 600 employees.

That explains the grumpiness...

Now they are at one fell swoop firing 600 employees.

What is the total work force? What percentage does 600 represent?

Wow --extraordinary

Just like Christmas! LOL!

When we were in London last October, there were soooo many buses with soooo few passengers. They really tied up traffic. Perhaps they will run fewer buses with more people and traffic will improve?

Meant to add I realize this is about the Tube, but buses are TFL as well, right? Some of the firings will perhaps relate to buses?

They have 28,000 employees, so it’s just over 2% of staff. Many private companies have shed more than 2% due to a decline in business caused by Covid. Fewer people have been working in central London due to the pandemic, so their income has fallen significantly.

There are dedicated bus lanes, so most of the traffic congestion isn’t caused by buses, it’s taxis, Amazon (and others) delivery vans etc.

It’s more to do with proposed pension changes. Employees currently get a “final salary” pension which is expensive to run. TfL pay 33% of salaries into the pension scheme. This more than triple what most employers pay in.

My final salary pension scheme (along with most in the private sector) was replaced about 15 years ago by an alternative. We didn’t strike, we just accepted that the pension world has changed.

In addition, there are partial, morning, shut downs on the 2nd and 4th that are supposed to end by late morning. Thank goodness for the TLF website and its bus route maps. It’s about time I learned some of the bus routes anyway.

Wow has that happened before to that scale?

Yes it has - happend a number of times in 1989 when I was living there. The buses kept going but obviously were totally overloaded. I was broke and a temp working in the city but living in NW9 - no one in the flat had a car. So basically I hitched into anywhere near the right direction and then walked. My agency was so short staffed they guraranteed a day's pay whether they placed you or not - some days it too me until 11am to get there.

It really improved my London geography - the tube map is a design icon -but bares no resemblance to the real geography

From reading numerous articles....

--no worker will lose their jobs. Cuts will be made by not filling empty posts nor replacing staff who choose to leave or retire.

--no proposals have been made to the pension scheme. It's still in discussion.

Today is the first day of the TFL fare increase and there are reports that some lines are partially running.

Almost nothing is operating in Zone 1. Bits and pieces of some lines open further out (eg at present between Acton Town and Hounslow Central on Piccadilly). Will depend on numbers of non-RMT personnel in particular areas on a shift by shift basis.

Every tube station we passed today was closed. You couldn’t get in at all; the gates were closed. Traffic was so congested it was quicker to walk than take a bus. We ended up walking 11 miles from Hyde Park corner to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub, then back to the Gloucester tube station by our hotel. There were multiple stops along the route.

A few hours ago the deputy leader of one of the striking unions (RMT), issued a letter condemning Britain, the EU and NATO for showing “disdain for Russian [i.e. Putin] concerns” in Ukraine. Make of that what you will.

Jeremy Corbin would be proud of him. LOL

the strike is still on tomorrow according to TfL