What do people in London do during Tube/DLR all day strikes?

There are lots of bus routes. Buses will be crowded, but you can probably find a bus to get where you want to go.

Sit in a park. People watch. Get something to eat. Visit a museum. Go to the movies. Walk about. Return to accommodation and relax.

Uber surge pricing will be off the scale if it goes ahead. Many working people will choose to take an annual leave or work from home if they can.

I'm confident it will be called off at the 11th hour though. Given the current government, there's much less likelihood of large scale strikes affecting TfL going ahead than there was previously. I haven't been following the story maybe as closely as I should, but my gut feeling is that it will be (or at least partially) worked out before the strikes happen. Everyone wants to avoid major disruption to TfL services if they can.

I'd probably add that there's enough redundancy in the public transport networks in London for you to get somewhere if you really want to go there on a strike day. The buses, Overground and National Rail services will all be running as normal (engineering works at the weekend count as normal btw) as far as I'm aware. You just work around the strikes if you have someplace you really want to be.

Timeout has an easy to read page that lists the possible disruption. I hadn't realised it was so extensive.

Again, I doubt very much what's planned just now will actually happen. It's too much disruption to be good for the unions or the government right now I think.

https://www.timeout.com/london/news/how-to-get-around-london-during-next-weeks-tube-strikes-082925

If it does happen, they'll walk, take the train (ie national rail services) or the bus. There are plenty of alternatives. If it happens I imagine many people who can will work remotely.

Oh, forgot about the buses still running. I'll bet they're rather packed. Yes, some folks can work remotely. Maybe it's a great opportunity to get in some exercise.

I was no referring to my own selfish situation, but what the residents do in these situations.

Appreciate the responses. Too bad they can't agree to a mediator.

So many people are set up to work from home these days that many businesses will just default to that as a matter of course. If you have a medical appointment, there's always a bus route that serves a hospital or clinic anywhere in London. Buses are deliberately routed that way. It will be busy on the buses. Bus stops can turn into a scrummage and there's nothing sadder than a completely full bus not letting people on.

There will be intense mediation going on between stakeholders right up until the 11th hour to prevent the strikes from happening.

Here's links to the RMT union's press release about their action and TfL's summary of the disruption.

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-will-launch-rolling-strike-action-over-pay-conditions-and/

https://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/strikes

Londoners also use the Overground (something most tourists rarely do), or the trams if in South London, also the river bus (Uber boats), and Thameslink.
It's always good to be broadly familiar with the Overground - especially the North and South London radial routes. It is very surprising what journeys you can use it for between London terminal stations.
Even normally if going across London from and to any Zone except 1, it is often starkly cheaper to avoid zone 1 on the Overground. Yes it takes you longer but you get to see parts of town you wouldn't know existed.
There is always pretty much a way by some other mode.
A Londoner also knows the quieter bus routes to get to places, rather than those which get mobbed.
So in central London I would avoid the leisure routes, the ones the tourists use as cheap HoHo routes, and use another route.
That is when the old paper maps come in, if in a less familiar part of town.

Pre-COVID the roads in central London were completely blocked with traffic on tube strike days. On one occasion, I had to travel to a meeting in the afternoon (not during the rush hour) walked from Liverpool Street to Holborn (about a mile and a half) and overtook several buses on foot.

Nowadays far more people work from home but I would still expect buses to be crowded and delayed.

So appreciate all the helpful information & really hoping they call off the strike. On 9/9 we were planning to go to Charing Cross station to catch the 8:19 AM train South Western Railway (which I understand is not on strike) to Moreton-in-Marsh. Will Charing Cross station be an issue? Thank you

I'm not sure why you are going to any other station than Paddington to get to Moreton in Marsh.
Also South Western Trains don't run from Charing Cross, and there is no 0819 train from Paddington to Moreton in Marsh.
What I believe is happening is you are taking a valid but unusual route - the 0820 Waterloo to Reading, changing there for Moreton in Marsh.
But the 0852 from Paddington will get you there an hour earlier.

I believe charing cross is closest to our hotel in covent garden. This is what the ticket says:
London Underground Zone 1 to Moreton in Marsh
Ticket type: Anytime Single (1st Class) Valid at any time of day by the route shown.
Route: Travel is allowed via any permitted route.
Outward journey: 9 Sep 2025
departs London Charing Cross at 08:19 travel by London Underground to station London Paddington arrives at 08:37
departs London Paddington at 08:52 travel by Train service provider Great Western Railway to station Moreton in Marsh arrives 10:18

BigMike,
Don't miss riding on the river boats while in London! They're handy for some journeys, good transportation across the city, when some of the tube lines aren't running. >> See the map.

If you have an oyster card, you tap in when you get on; tap again when you exit the boat.

Thames Clipper route map:
https://www.thamesclippers.com/plan-your-journey/route-map

From Tower of London Pier to Greenwich is a lovely ride. Look to the south bank of the river to see The Mayflower Pub. Passengers left on the Mayflower to come to America from here. Perhaps the most historic pub in London. (That and The George.)

Have a good trip!

*@cherylsmithbryan *So there is a 99% certainty that there will be no Tube trains on the Bakerloo line from Charing Cross to Paddington that day.
So what I would do is to set off at no later than 8am (preferably sooner) to walk up to Tottenham Court Road station for the Elizabeth Line to Paddington.

do you have an actual ticket for that journey (tube and train)? If so, you need to be very careful using the tube (as Stuart said, probably not, on that date) or Elizabeth Line for the connection to Paddington. If it is a real train ticket the gateline machine will want to eat it - better to go to the wide gate and show it to the staff member there so you still have your ticket when boarding the train at Paddington.

Do check - early - to be sure that the station at Tottenham Court Road is open because the Lizzy shares the station with the Underground. There is some thought that the Lizzy will be nonstopping central London if the staff at the joint stations down tools.

I just found the bus map on the TFL site

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/key-bus-routes-in-central-london.pdf

Celeste, that very helpful map is only a fraction of the uses on those and more routes. What TfL calls Key Routes. If you know where you are starting and where you want to go use the Journey Planner on the website.

Also use the app TfL Go and it will give you real time of the buses and take you where you want to go...

happy travels.

I've been out so haven't been able to post on the other thread - but the BBC reports ongoing talks to search for a resolution.