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It’s been a rough new year for tube passengers so far, with protests over the Night Tube hitting Friday and Saturday services each weekend. And there’s set to be even more transport chaos in weeks to come. Transport union RMT has ordered thousands of tube workers not to turn up to work on Tuesday March 1 and Thursday March 3, spelling disaster for commuters.
This latest move is part of a wider ongoing dispute over pensions, pay and conditions for TfL workers. The RMT’s general secretary Mick Lynch has come out strongly against what he calls a Downing Street ‘cuts agenda’, saying ‘These are the very same transport staff praised as heroes for carrying London through Covid for nearly two years, often at serious personal risk, who now have no option but to strike to defend their livelihoods’.
But TfL has argued that these changes are essential to save the network as it deals with disastrous financial shortfalls. London’s transport network was stretched to financial breaking point during Covid, with a drastic fall in passenger numbers leading to a massive £1.5 billion hole in its budgets. Short of a massive government injection of cash, it’s unclear how this situation will be resolved. The only certainty is that there’ll be lots more transport disruption in the future.
The internet has been asked to name this Westminster Abbey gargoyle.