Striking Tube drivers want two-for-one Legoland tickets as part of their list of demands which already includes more pay and a four-day working week as they plunge the capital into further travel chaos.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) have walked out of their £72,000-a-year jobs for a third day, causing a frantic scramble for hard-working Britons who are having to fight tooth and nail to make it into the city.
While Tube drivers perch themselves on the picket line, workers throughout London are packing onto buses, boats, bikes and trains – while trying to avoid completely gridlocked traffic and crippling cycle lane closures.
Footage from across London has shown the city being ‘held to ransom’ as millions of Britons packed onto buses which were so full the doors could not close, with mammoth queues also seen at stops.
Scenes of chaos have continued to erupt this morning in stations such as Clapham Junction in south London, where swarms of workers were seen desperately attempting to board an overground rail service into the city.
The Elizabeth Line and the Overground – the only two lines which have been running as normal – have also been completely flooded with workers amid the network shutdown, with queues forming out of the station exits.
Some commuters who managed to get on the minimal amount of Tubes running even revealed that they were trapped inside a station which was shut when they tried to leave.
TfL were forced to apologise to passengers at Debden, on the Central Line, on Monday after the barriers to leave the station were inaccessible and no staff were on the premises after around 10 minutes.
And now, it has been revealed by the The Telegraph that the strikers’ demands include a so-called Priv travel card which would grant them cheap tickets and discounts to theme parks such as Legoland, Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures.
It would also see them given discounts at Cadbury World and the London Eye, as well as guided tours at Buckingham Palace and a drag-themed party night in Soho, central London.
Tory transport spokesman at City, Hall Keith Prince, said Londoners will not take kindly to seeing the city ‘brought to its knees’ so union members can ‘go on rollercoasters’.
He said: ‘The RMT has brought the capital to its knees to demand discounted theme park tickets and an extra day off a week.
‘It’s a joke – Londoners work hard for the things they want and if the RMT thinks they’re going to hold the city to ransom for a go on the rollercoasters then they’ll find out very quickly how little Londoners support them to do so.
‘This crisis cannot go on – where is the Mayor, and where is his leadership at this crucial time for our city?’
The Priv card also gives its holders 75 per cent off mainline train tickets outside of London, and grants two-for-one access to multiple tourist locations across the country.
If granted, this would come on top of the existing benefits Tube drivers receive which entitle their loved ones to travel for free across the entire London public transport system.
A union source told the newspaper that ‘travel concessions are varied’ and ‘trips to Legoland don’t form part of any negotiation’.
However, the move only looks set to infuriate London’s commuters further, with some reporting yesterday that they faced three-hour journeys on short bus routes such as north London to Kensington.
It is believed that the RMT’s current demands for its members would cost around £200million – and that is before the resulting costs and discounts of the Priv ticket are even considered.
Transport for London (TfL), who have since tabled a 3.4 per cent pay rise offer to the union’s members, said reducing working hours from the demanded 35 hours per week, to 32 hours would be ‘simply unaffordable’.
They added that they were ‘bitterly disappointed’ with the RMT’s decision to go ahead with the strikes.
Some Labour MPs yesterday continued to show their support for the militant union barons whose Tube strikes look set to paralyse London for the remainder of the week.
As workers scrambled to get across the capital, Labour’s Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson said she stood in ‘solidarity’ with the RMT, defiantly adding: ‘No worker should be put at risk by fatigue & extreme shift rotations – power in a union, always!’
The stance appeared to fly in the face of Downing Street’s official line, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman saying: ‘Londoners will rightly be fed up with the disruption from Tube strikes this morning as parents try to drop their kids off at school, get to hospital appointments, get to work.
‘RMT and TfL need to get back around the table and work together to resolve this dispute in the interests of passengers.’
The strikes were launched on Sunday with a limited service still operating, but the full-scale walkout is the first time the underground network has been entirely closed since March 2023.
TfL said: ‘We have been clear that their demand for a reduction in the working week is unaffordable and impractical, and we urge them to put our offer to their members.’
Commuters had hoped a similar aversion would be deployed to that of last January, when Mr Khan used £30million of Greater London Authority funds to stop Tube workers from striking.
But with no solution in sight and a week of disruption ahead, many called the Mayor of London’s role into question.
Conservative MP for Bexley and Sidcup, Louie French, said the Mayor was ‘missing in action’ in a post on X.
He wrote: ‘Millions of Londoners will be impacted by this week’s strike action. Labour’s union paymasters want more pay for less work for tube drivers already earning £65k plus.
‘It’s the Labour way and Sadiq Khan is missing in action yet again, despite promising zero strikes.’
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: ‘Nobody wants to see strike action or disruption for Londoners.
‘Strikes have a serious impact on London’s businesses and commuters. The Mayor continues to urge the RMT and TfL to get around the table to resolve this matter and get the network re-open.’
An RMT spokesperson said they ‘are not going on strike to disrupt small businesses or the public’.
They added: ‘This strike is going ahead because of the intransigent approach of TfL management and their refusal to even consider a small reduction in the working week in order to help reduce fatigue and the ill-health effects of long-term shift work on our members.
‘We believe a shorter working week is fair and affordable, particularly when you consider TfL has a surplus of £166 million last year and a £10 billion annual operating budget.’
But with the economy having already taken a hit, Muniya Barua, Deputy Chief Executive at BusinessLDN, said the strikes would hit businesses dramatically as she urged both the RMT and TfL to come to an ‘urgent’ agreement.
She said: ‘This is hugely frustrating for Londoners that rely on the Tube to get around the city. It will hit firms that rely on footfall especially hard, particularly those in hospitality, retail and the cultural sector.’
Downing Street also warned about the economic hit being suffered by firms, with a No10 spokesman saying: ‘Businesses who rely on the Tube for work and footfall will be fed up with these strikes.’
However, the PM’s office pushed back at suggestions Labour’s reforms to workers’ rights would make similar strikes more likely.
‘We’ve always said in introducing our reforms we want to, unlike the previous government, have a more constructive relationship with unions,’ Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said.
‘And also a more secure workforce is good for the economy, is good for productivity.’
The effects of the strikes have already hit the economy, with Coldplay and Post Malone rescheduling their planned gigs at Wembley and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Coldplay said in a statement: ‘We’re sorry to announce that, due to planned industrial action on the London Underground, we’ve been forced to reschedule our final two concerts of the current Wembley Stadium run.
‘Without a Tube service, it’s impossible to get 82,000 people to the concert and home again safely, and therefore no event licence can be granted for the nights of 7th and 8th September.’
It has been estimated that the total cost to the economy over the coming week could reach hundreds of millions.
Commuters in the capital face yet further misery when the London Underground returns to full service, with bus strikes on the horizon immediately after.
If planned action go ahead, services operated by First Bus will strike in west, northwest and southwest London from 5am on Friday, September 12, to Monday, September 15.
Should the Tube network not be operating again by this time, workers face an almighty task to make it into the heart of the city from those regions.
