London Letter: Tube drivers on collision course over strikes

Sometimes, companies are given an open door and, yet, they can fail to walk through it, judging by the different attitudes adopted by Uber and a small Thames ferry company to yesterday's London Underground strike.

The dispute caused mayhem. Nearly 3.5 million people use the Tube daily. Tempers frayed in the summer heat as commuters struggled to get a place on over-crowded buses, or else made their way on foot or by bicycle to work.

Faced with this opportunity to win new friends, Uber - the controversial, but increasingly popular, social media taxi app - jacked up prices by 300 per cent, setting down a minimum £14 fare, and a tariff of £3.50 per mile.

CityCruises, meanwhile, offered free journeys between the London Eye and Canary Wharf and entertained frustrated travellers en route with a humorous take on London’s history, buildings and industrial relations.

Elsewhere, people resorted to fair means, or foul, to organise transport . Two hundred extra buses, including some of the elderly but much-loved Routemasters, were brought into service.

Some commuters hoarded the city’s so-called “Boris” for-hire bikes in their offices, to ensure that they did not emerge later to empty ranks.

Even if there was frequent stoicism, there was aggravation, too, as appointments and job start-times were missed.

“I’ve just witnessed two guys literally fight each other for the last place on a bus,” one commuter declared on Twitter.

Crash barriers

Given the extra road traffic, commuters faced significantly longer journeys where they could get a bus, while those crowded on to Overground platforms had to be corralled behind crash barriers.

Public relations is a major battleground in the dispute between Transport for London and the unions, the RMT, Aslef, TSSA and UNITE, over the Underground’s plans for 24-hour services, starting on weekends from September on parts of five lines.

Transport for London made the announcement before it had agreed conditions with staff, who object both to night-time working, but also to the way in which future pay rises are linked to their acceptance of it.

So far, the drivers are not winning the PR battle, with reams of criticism about the fact that longer-serving staff earn £50,000-a-year, compared with less than half of that for their equivalents on London’s buses - a far more stressful job, in the eyes of many.

However, not everyone agrees with the criticism: “You’ve got a job, you’ve got terms and conditions - [then] your boss turns around and says, ‘Oh, no, you don’t, you’ll do what you’re told or you can jog on’,” LBC presenter James O’Brien told his listeners yesterday.

Final judgments depend on the details of what it is that the drivers are being asked to do.

London Underground says that, on average, drivers will be required to work seven full-night shifts a year, adding that there will be 137 extra drivers to help staff the new services.

All-night service

In addition, it says that unions representing Tube workers rejected an offer of a 2 per cent pay increase this year and a £2,000 bonus for drivers on the new all-night service, though unions say they were given just two hours to consider it.

One Tube driver said he is currently signed up for one week, “sometimes two”, of night-work a year, but claimed: “Under new terms, I would have to work a minimum of 14 weeks of nights. I have a family; I would like to see them at weekends. Shift work already takes a lot of that away.”

Describing the strike as "totally unnecessary", London mayor Boris Johnson took the side of Transport for London (TfL).

“I think most reasonable people will look at the offer that’s on the table from London Underground and find it impossible to fathom why the unions are rejecting it.

“I also think it’s extraordinary that the union leadership hasn’t even put the offer back to their members to formally consider,” Mr Johnson said.

“Ultimately this strike will achieve nothing. Londoners will no doubt show resolve and resourcefulness in getting to where they need to go.”

The strike, which still affected services until this morning, has reignited demands for driverless trains.

During angry online exchanges, one commuter said: “The Japanese have been running automated trains for decades. They even clean themselves. Why shouldn’t that happen in the UK? . . . The technology exists. It has existed for decades.

“You have been redundant for decades. Employing you is either an act of charity or an act of cowardice on the part of TfL. You are surplus to requirements in the 21st century.”