Editorial: Is anybody willing to take responsibility for Strike Island? June 23, 2022 Welcome to Strike Island, then. British Airways’ ground handlers – or at least, a chunk of them – are now joining an ever-growing list of unionised workers who have picked walkouts over work amid a heightening cost of everything crisis. Whether it’s wise for union leaders to take their staff out on strike at the [...]
Khan lashes Shapps for refusing to meet over TfL funding as latest deal runs out June 23, 2022 Sadiq Khan has hit out at transport secretary Grant Shapps for refusing to meet with him over Transport for London (TfL) funding, despite the body’s latest deal running out tomorrow. The mayor of London told a group of journalists today that Shapps had not answered formal requests for a meeting that was made two weeks [...]
Rail strikes spill into tube network, affecting journeys on Overground, Bakerloo and Elizabeth lines June 23, 2022 The chaos and disruption brought by the ongoing rail strike has once again spilled into London’s tube network, affecting journeys on the Overground as well as the Bakerloo and Elizabeth lines. Overground services are running on a reduced schedule as trains between Romford and Upminster, Sydenham and Crystal Palace as well as between Surrey Quays [...]
London business groups: TfL funding deal ‘vital’ to capital’s economy as Khan warns on ‘managed decline’ June 22, 2022 LONDON business groups, think-tanks and property firms have warned the capital’s transport network needs a long-term funding settlement from central government or risk ‘decades’ of damage. Transport for London’s (TfL) latest emergency bailout with the Department for Transport runs out Friday – risking what the network’s chiefs have described as “managed decline” of the service. [...]
Londoners rely on e-bikes and scooters as strikes bring capital to standstill June 22, 2022 The number of Londoners using cycle and e-scooter hire schemes as well as ride-hailing apps surged on Tuesday after the combination of tube and railway strikes brought the capital to a standstill. According to Transport for London (TfL) figures, bike hires more than doubled yesterday, going from an average of 27,000 to 67,000 in what [...]
TfL to impose fines for driving on cycling lanes June 22, 2022 Londoners will need to brace themselves as Transport for London (TfL) has announced it will begin fining motorists for driving in cycle lanes. From 27 June the public body will have powers over lanes and tracks across its wider road network, in the same way it legislates over bus lanes and yellow box junctions. Introduced [...]
Welcome aboard, this is a driverless train: unions begin their own demise June 22, 2022 As the summer sun makes the UK feel like a Mediterranean resort, we are also about to see the perils of the labour problems that Southern Europe was so often bedeviled by. Trains have ground to a halt, the London Underground has stopped, and buses are stuck in their depots. Millions of pounds will be [...]
Transport for London’s haphazard funding model must now be made fit for the future June 22, 2022 SINCE the pandemic wiped out much of Transport for London’s fares income, London’s transport network has faced an existential crisis. The Elizabeth Line’s opening was a rare upbeat moment in a miserable couple of years of uncertainty for the city.
Train strikes: Disruption set to cost hospitality £540m and have ‘catastrophic’ impact on night economy June 20, 2022 This week’s rail and tube strikes are set to cost the hospitality sector £540m, as the nighttime economy will suffer a “catastrophic impact”. Trade union action on the transport network this week will “set back the recovery of our high streets and deter people from going out in the evening”, leading to hundreds of million [...]
Rail unions plot six months of strikes ahead of transport chaos this week June 20, 2022 Rail strikes could continue for the next six months if a pay row fails to be resolved, which may strikes all the way up until Christmas if the pay row isn’t resolved. It comes amid the largest bout of industrial action in nearly 30 years, as members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union rail [...]