No tube day September 06, 2010

It’s a week since the London Tube strike. As usual there was chaos in London on strike day as most Londoners depend on the underground to go about their normal business. It is not my intention to go into the rights and wrongs of the the strike itself; probably best if you make your own mind up about this and one of the places you can find information, opinions and links on this is at the BBC website. What struck me, however, was that it wasn’t as bad as the last one and I’d like to talk a little about that.

While the Tube workers went on strike, more of the other means of transport were put into place to help commuters get to work. I had a rather pleasant commute that day using the Thames river boat service and bus, as you can probably gather from the photos in this post. It took a little longer than normal but this was marginal and was much more enjoyable. There was no over-crowding and the option of sitting on the outside deck if one wished. There was also one other bonus. The boat crew were a rather happy bunch and the jokey announcements and banter between them made a welcome change to the comparatively more impersonal Tube service. The boat service is more expensive than the Tube but I would certainly consider this a viable alternative, particularly on a nice sunny day.

Taking the river boat to work.

I realise of course that my journey was pleasant this time in part because I now live near a river boat terminal and this was not practical before. Instead, I took a bus across town to work. This involved over two hours in a tightly packed bus with commuters screaming at the bus driver from the pavement because they couldn’t get on. The bus had difficulty moving off from stations because as the driver let people off at their requested stops, other commuters wanted to get on even when it was not possible, leading to the bus sitting at the bus stop until people finally saw sense. It takes a brave man/woman to be a bus driver on a Tube strike day.

Waiting for the bus by Big Ben

From what I read more people cycled to work during this period and the recently installed Boris bikes were put to good use. The Capital has recently benefited from the installation of more cycle paths in the form of Barclays Cycle Superhighways. With more on the way and a rather impressive coverage of the city, as seen on the map, it is easy to imagine that more commuters will take to two wheels in the future.

The question for me is as follows. The efficacy of strike action is dependent on the impact of witholding services. If this is minimised by other services stepping up, what will the strikers then do to restore the impact of their action?