To think this spineless government will give in to grabby train drivers

[LupaMoonhowl]

I live in London and wasn’t aware of this till I saw in mentioned in passing on another thread.
It is utterly scandalous that they can hold the city to ransom like this! How can they cut off key transport for 5 days! And no doubt they’re confident that the spineless, incompetent and public sector/vote buying government and cynical chancer Kahn will give into what they demand.
Back to the 70s 😔😔
Tube and DLR strikes - September 2025
Strikes are planned on the Tube and DLR.

• From Sunday 7 to Thursday 11 September 2025, Tube services will be severely disrupted, with little to no service expected
• Any services that do run between Monday 8 and Friday 12 September will start later than usual with no service before 08:00
• On Tuesday 8 and Thursday 11 September 2025, there will also be no service on the DLR

And they have all gone on strike over the years?

Yes, they do.

Do you work on the railway? Yes obviously the don’t steer the train, but it is more than just pushing buttons. There are a lot of rules to learn, stopping distances etc. Would you know when and where to slow down if you were doing 100mph in a vehicle weighing 100s of tons, metal wheels on a metal rail, to then stop in the exact correct place on a platform? And know that for a lot of different stations, in different weathers? And then the same for the 100s of signals? If they go through a signal they get taken off track and are interrogated. I’m sure you could do it, but after many many months of training like all drivers get. And a lot of people don’t have the mindset or skill set to do it. It is not just ‘pushing buttons’.

All of that is automated. They don’t do that manually.

Do you mean massive pensions, unlimited sick leave,great maternity packages are not enough (for whole public sector)? Please check average salary for a train driver in London first. I hope AI will replace them all soon.

Agree with all that. And to stay alert, doing all that through a 9 hour shift. It's a safety critical job.

No, it is not. On the whole national rail network, the only part that is automated is between St Pancras and Elephant and Castle

You do know these staff work underground with no air conditioning or modern air filtration? Do you know how many people throw themselves under tube trains every week? Most tube stations in central London are a long way underground- do you know how to manually winch a lift, isolate power to lines to safely evacuate people, identify from behaviours on platforms who may want to self harm? Can you do CPR, effectively use a defibrillator? All TFL staff in underground stations can do this and a lot more - the Unions are making sure tube travel is the safest it can be - and when/if there is an emergency underground I will be thankful for their expertise!

Bollocks. We run railways on Victorian infrastructure, with tight clearances that make emergency evacuation difficult. If you travel on the automated Milan Metro line you'd see that continuous catwalks are provided for evacuation - no chance of doing that on legacy infrastructure in the UK, it's simply unaffordable. There will still be a human manning every London Underground train for many decades to come.

Whiny motherfuckers. Get a grip, try working in McDonald's lol

Actually, no. TfL (almost uniquely among urban public transport operators around the world) covers its own operating costs through the farebox.

If it's so easy, why don't you apply for the job?

Then maybe you'll discover that there's far more to it than you thought.

I won't take any lessons from the US on road safety.

Because the cost will ultimately be born by the end customer (or the tax payer), many of whom are not benefitting from inflation linked pay increases…

I have no issue with this. Good for them.

Have a strong union and being willing to strike means a mainly working class profession enjoys decent wages and benefits.

The fact other workers let their employers walk all over them is not TFL’s problem.

Many of those sectors strike. Birmingham is still going through a binmen strike now.

Both wrong.

I’m talking about the tube. Tube drivers. Which is what the strike is.

Network rail / train drivers, I agree they do a different job of course.

Yes obv ticket payments etc allow some self funding. However, for example

‘In the 2024 Autumn Budget the Government announced a one-year settlement of £485m for 2025/26. This will ensure that London's transport network can continue to support new homes, economic growth, jobs and productivity in London and the UK.’

That is ridiculous. NHS doctors can be on call for 24 hours at a time. You think a train driver on 35 hours a week is dangerously fatigued?

Yes. This.

I presume everyone cheering them on doesn’t rely on the tube. I’m a Londoner and been through many, many tube strikes. Some years I was an office temp, and would lose a day’s wages as I literally couldn’t get to work. I’m sure this will now apply to many people. The tube strikers don’t seem to have much solidarity with the low paid workers their strikes affect.

For this strike I won’t be able to get to Heathrow to help my elderly mum, and I won’t be able to do a trip on the Sunday for which I paid a lot of money, as I can’t get to Victoria to get the train. I’ll also have a visitor staying who will have most of his trip spoiled as it will be hard to get to central London for most of the time he is here, and also have to spend a fortune on a taxi to the airport. Thankful to be able to work from home so I can actually get paid this time around.

I am sorry that the strike inconveniences you. Perhaps you could ask the pickets for a "low-paid pass"? Or if you are unhappy with your pay and career choices, you could change them - or join a union and fight for better conditions?

Meanwhile, in the rest of the country, we don't have the wide range of 24 hour public transport that London does, so we are weeping for you. Around here the "once an hour if it doesn't go missing bus" starts at 7am and stops at 10:30pm, although half the time the last bus is cancelled, and a taxi which is the only alternative costs £17+ each way.

When the rest of the country gets the kind of infrastucture investment that London does, we might feel a bit more sorry for you.

You think a doctor on call for 24 hours at a time is safe?

@EmmaMariayiur choice to live somewhere with one bus an hour? Londoners pay through the nose to live here and we need good infrastructure as there are millions of us.

Tube strikes should be limited by law to only one day.