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JOURNEY HOME FROM HELL
Commuters battle to get on busses and face gridlock on the roads as Tube strike brings a wave of further travel misery this evening
Commuters were hit hard by the strike today
THIS is the moment hundreds of commuters are forced to wrestle their way onto a single bus as they feel the full force of the 24-hour Tube strike on their journey home.
The chaos kicked off for Londoners after talks to avoid the strike action by workers failed in the final hours.
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Across the capital Tube stations were closed and only a limited service was running on 10 of the 11 lines.
The walkout has been sparked by workers protesting over job cuts and ticket office closures.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) took part, with a normal service expected to resume tomorrow.
Workers were seen today at picket lines outside Tube stations and were said to be solidly supporting the action.
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London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he "condemned" the industrial action and called on the unions to return to the negotiating table.
He said he had inherited the dispute but was taking action to address the unions' concerns, calling the industrial action "completely unnecessary".
"I accept we need more staff and we have been having good discussions with the unions which should have carried on."
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RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "This action has been forced on us by savage cuts to jobs that have reduced London Underground to an under-staffed death trap at a time of heightened security and safety alert."
The union also accused LU of under-estimating the impact of the strike.
London Underground chief operating officer Steve Griffiths said: "I thank customers for their patience as they try to make their journeys today during this unnecessary strike.
"We have hundreds of Travel Ambassadors on hand to help keep customers informed of what services are running and to help them get around the capital.
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"This strike is unnecessary. We had always intended to review staffing levels and have had constructive discussions with the unions.
"We agree that we need more staff in our stations and have already started to recruit 200 extra staff and this is likely to increase further as we work through the other areas that need to be addressed.
"Taking into account existing vacancies and natural turnover, this means that over 600 staff will be recruited for stations this year."
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TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes said: "I pay tribute to my members whose commitment to public service is so strong they are now prepared to forgo a day's pay today and strike if that's what it takes to warn the public that the Tube is no longer as safely run as it was this time last year.
"The strength of feeling on this issue is reflected in the solidity of the strike with just a few trains running at the edges of the system."
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Transport for London (TfL) said it was running a limited services on 10 of 11 Tube lines, adding that 69% of stations were open at some point on Monday.
Edward Cooke, chief executive of retail property body Revo, said: "London shops, restaurants and bars, which already face a perfect storm of rising costs through the business rates revaluation, national living wage and inflation caused by the weaker pound, must now deal with the major economic repercussions of a 24-hour Tube strike.
"Based on the near-10% dip in footfall on previous strike days, we expect similar disruption and for the strike to disproportionately affect thousands of smaller retailers across London."
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As the strike hit Londoners this morning, commuters took to social media to vent their frustration.
Commuters were even forced to queue for 90 minutes simply to get on a bus this morning as the transport system struggled to make up for the lack of Underground services.
The crowding and delays have been widespread throughout today, with one person sharing a photograph of travellers trying to pack onto a bus, writing: "Not even standing room only. @TfL thanks."
Another wrote: "The people of London should sue TFL for damages caused by these stupid strikes. It's our tube!"
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Local government worker Michael Gunning 27, said: "It is very annoying, it makes life hard.
"Normally I would be on a train and halfway there by now and be in work at 8am - now I'm probably not going to in until at least 8.30 or 9, I don't know."
He said that the strikes were making commuters less sympathetic to the drivers.
Margaret King, from Chelmsford, Essex, said: "It think it is atrocious, I do not agree. I do not like people striking at all."
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This morning, no underground services were running from Waterloo and queues formed outside the station in the drizzle.
James Tomlin, 32, a plumber carrying two large holdalls full of heavy tools was travelled from one end of the capital to the other, from Sutton in south London for a job in Mornington Crescent in north London.
He said: "I'm outraged, I'm really angry.
"It's massively affected my journey and I was gutted when I found out it was going on.
"I was meant to be at a job at 7.30am and it's now 7.50.
"I think the whole journey will end up taking up between two-and-a-half and three hours."
Another frustrated commuter Michael Edmunds, who was travelling from Epsom to City Road in Islington said: "It's a disaster.
"My firm does do deliveries for clients so it will affect that and have an impact on costs.
"Although I have sympathy for the closures of the ticket offices, the impact on businesses with people not being able to get to work is huge."
One traveller said that they took an hour and a half to get from Finsbury park to Camden - a journey of barely three miles.
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And today is not the end of the strike woe for Londoners.
Up to 4,000 station and ticket staff will walk out from 6pm on Sunday as part of the ongoing dispute over staffing numbers.
The majority of Underground stations in Zone 1 will be closed as part of the strikes with a limited service running on the District, Circle and Hammersmith and City lines, although trains will not stop at all stations
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