Tube strike: Passengers' frustration as walk-out over toilet breaks coincides with heavy downpours

Travel chaos: More than 600,000 commuters will be affected by strike action on the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines
TfL
Jamie Bullen16 September 2016

Frustrated commuters vented their anger today as heavy downpours coincided with a Tube strike and sparked fears of journeys from "hell".

Passengers took to social media to complain about their battles to work amid adverse weather conditions on a reduced Underground service.

Tube workers on the Hammersmith & City and Circle walked out on strike for 24 hours from 9pm on Thursday over a dispute dubbed the toilet break strike.

As a result it was feared no trains will run on the entire Hammersmith & City line, while the Circle line will have fewer trains than usual with passengers facing waits of up to 20-minutes on the platform.

However, Transport for London said enough drivers arrived for work on Friday to run a 20-minute service on the Hammersmith & City line between Hammersmith and Moorgate.

Strike action was called by the RMT Union after workers claimed their toilet breaks are being timed by stopwatch. More than 600,000 commuters face travel chaos as a result of industrial action.

One woman wrote: “no H&C AND reduced circle line? I'm going to have to endure the red line of hell”.

Karl O'Keeffe tweeted: “Christ. It's the meteorological apocalypse. This should make for a fun commute, especially with a tube strike...”

Another woman tweeted: “Pretty dramatic lighting and gallons of rain in central London this morning. Roads a nightmare. Tube strike as well #Friday.”

Daniel Apt posted: “Of course the H&C tube strike happens on a terribly rainy day...”

Steve White, operations director for London Underground, said: "Despite today’s 24-hour strike action, we have had enough drivers available this morning to let us run a train every 20 minutes between Hammersmith and Moorgate on the Hammersmith & City line, and on the Circle line.

"Our customers are advised to check our real-time travel information. All other Tube lines and other TfL services are operating as normal. We apologise to our customers whose journeys have been needlessly disrupted by this strike action today.”

The Tube chaos comes hours after parts of London were submerged by flash floods during torrential rain on Thursday evening.

More downpours are expected on Friday with heavy thunderstorms, rain as well as hail and lightning forecast.

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