London Underground strikes to cause severe disruption next week

A cascading series of strikes next week will cause severe disruption for most of the week, according to warnings from Transport for London (TfL).

Rather than a one day strike by all staff, the RMT union is having different sections of the staff walk out on different days, which will lead to a week of problems for commuters. TfL says that if the strikes go ahead, there will be severe disruption on the London Underground network from the evening of Sunday 7th January, through to the morning of Friday 12th January 2024.

Sunday 7th January: Tube services will close earlier than normal. Customers are advised to complete tube journeys by 5:30pm.

Monday 8th to Thursday 11th January: Severe disruption is expected, with little to no service expected to run.

Friday 12th January: Tube services will start later than normal, with a good service expected by midday.

Also – for District line users, if the strike action goes ahead, TfL will look to amend planned engineering work on the District line, which could result in a closure of the Wimbledon branch of the District line between Wimbledon and Parsons Green this coming Friday 5th January.

None of the other TfL services will be on strike but buses, DLR, London Overground and Elizabeth line services are likely to be busier and affected by station closures where stations also serve London Underground lines.

For example, the Elizabeth line’s Tottenham Court Road station may have the entrance shared with the London Underground closed at times, but the second entrance on Dean Street will likely be open as it’s only used by the Elizabeth line.

TfL also says that one-way or queueing systems may also be in place at busy locations.

The strike ballot by RMT members was close though, as while 9,723 members were entitled to vote, with a 54% turnout, it only just passed the 50% turnout that is required for a ballot to be legal if the union management decides to instruct their members to take strike action.

Of those who voted, 4,827 were in favour of strike action, while 505 were opposed. While that counts as 90% in favour of strike action, had those opposed to strike action chosen to abstain, then the ballot would not have passed the 50% threshold for the strike action to be permitted.

So it was a close call.