Tube strike February 2017: Commuters warned of travel chaos during 'needless' 24-hour driver walkout on Central and Waterloo & City lines

Fiona Simpson21 February 2017

Commuters prepare to face severe travel disruption in the wake of a "needless" 24-hour driver strike set to cripple two major London Underground lines.

Tube passengers look set to battle huge crowds as drivers from the RMT and Aslef unions will walk out from 9pm on Tuesday over the “forced” transfer of eight drivers to different depots.

The Waterloo & City line will shut down completely over the strike and the Central line will have no service east of Leytonstone and a reduced service on the rest of the line all day on Wednesday.

London Underground (LU) have issued a warning to passengers that other lines will be busier as a result of the disruption and said passengers may have to queue outside stations during rush hour.

Tube strike chaos

1/17

Anyone travelling to or from Leytonstone is advised that buses from this station will be extremely busy. TfL urged passengers to take a bus from Stratford or Leyton instead.

Those wishing to use Ilford station could take the bus to Barking and use the District or Hammersmith & City lines.

Peter McNaught, operations director for the Central Line, said the strike was "unnecessary".

He added: "We have made all reasonable efforts to resolve this dispute through talking through the issues with the unions and we have minimised the number of employees affected from over 30 to eight.

Faces of frustration: Battling the Tube strike

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"All of these moves are within the long-standing agreements we have made with the unions.

"We urge them to engage with us to resolve this issue and to withdraw the strike action, which will only cause needless disruption to Londoners."

Strike action: The Central line will have no service east of Leytonstone
Transport for London

Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said: "RMT negotiators have made strenuous efforts through the Acas machinery to resolve this dispute but the door has been slammed in our faces.

"To up the ante, LU have now written to us confirming that they will be bulldozing through the displacements regardless.

"If LU are allowed to get away with this move on the Central Line they will start shunting drivers around at the drop of a hat regardless of the consequences.

"Our members will be sent out from pillar to post to plug gaps that are solely down to staffing shortages.

"With massive budget cuts in the pipeline at LU this is a straw in the wind as to how the company expects to operate in the future."

Normal service is expected to resume on Thursday morning.

For updates follow TfL on Twitter or visit the Transport for London website.

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