A former McDonald’s worker who has worked as a Tube driver for 11 years has shared a behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like operating the Bakerloo line – as Transport for London strikes grind London to a halt for a third day.
Sarah Russell, 34, routinely shares snippets from her life on TikTok where 33,000 people follow her updates.
In one such video, Sarah said she started making videos about her job to ‘share an insight into the role that not many people get to see’.
Sarah applied for a job with London Underground over a decade ago and is still working as a Tube driver because of how much she loves her job.
She explained that she never went to university and worked at a McDonald’s before she was hired by TfL, adding the job offer ‘changed my life for the better’.
She said: ‘I’ve had some jobs in the past that I knew that I was never gonna work in long-term and I’ve been on the London Underground for 11 years now and I’m in a job role that I will, more than likely, be in till the end of my career.’
Sarah clarified that she only films TikTok videos when she’s not in the driver’s cabin, and when things are ‘running smoothly’.
‘The videos that you see are filmed on days where everything is running smoothly and I’ve got a little bit of extra time – like a couple of seconds at max – to give you a sort of clip of what I’m doing,’ she told her followers.
‘But you’ll never see things when there’s a service disruption, there’s issues, I just don’t think that part is very professional,’ Sarah continued.
It comes as passengers face more travel misery today as unions warned industrial relations on London Underground have ‘totally collapsed’.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) plunged the capital into further travel chaos today as they walked out of their £72,000-a-year jobs for a third day.
Thousands of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union are taking industrial action this week in a dispute over pay and hours.
While some Tube staff stand on the picket line, workers in London are packing onto buses, boats, bikes and trains amid gridlocked traffic and cycle lane closures.
Londoners tried to board buses that were so full the doors could not shut – with huge numbers waiting at stops and for Overground trains, which are still running.
Downing Street on Tuesday said Londoners would ‘rightly be fed up’ of the strikes – but declined to comment on whether there should be more automation of the Tube network to prevent the prospect of further disruptive strikes in the future.
While Sarah has not commented on the strike action on her TikTok page, she recently revealed what it takes to become a Tube driver – as she shared TfL likes to ’employ drivers from within’ in the comments section of one of her videos.
She said recruitment for these jobs are ‘highly competitive’ and recommended looking out for customer service staff vacancies before applying to be a driver.
‘If you do get in, the whole training is like six months long,’ she told one of her followers.
She also defended the Bakerloo line when one follower pointed out carriages of multiple trains are covered in graffiti, as Sarah asserted: ‘It’s getting better.’
Writing under another ‘Day in the Life’ video, Sarah was asked what it’s like working for TfL to which she replied: ‘I love it.’
‘Great benefits, some flexibility with tie of the day your want to work (on trains anyway)’.
In another of her videos, Sarah revealed she prefers working the late shift, which begins at 4.30pm and sees her drop off her final train at 1am, because she’s a ‘night owl’.
She also shared how many journeys she completes per shift as a driver on the Bakerloo line – which is entirely driver-operated.
During her shift, she managed to complete two ’rounders’ – meaning driving from one end of the line to the other – between Elephant & Castle and Queen’s Park.
Sarah explained that unlike office workers who can pop to the loo at their own discretion, drivers aren’t allowed to stop unless in the case of an emergency – and must wait to relieve themselves.
She said: ‘Refilled my water bottle because I’m trying to get my two litres in, which is quite hard needing to pee all the time when you’re a driver but we move.’
‘Drivers have to be strategic,’ she told her followers in another video.
Once she arrived at Elephant and Castle, the final stop of her working day, Sarah has to ’empty the train out, close it up and shunt the train back to London Road depot.’
Equipped with a pair of noise-cancelling earbuds, Sarah must walk the concourse of the many train carriages, ensuring that there are no passengers left on the train.
The protective earmuffs are worn to protect drivers from high levels of noise during the working day.
After making the journey to the depot, she finally drops the train off at around 1am, marking the end of her shift.
Sarah made her exit from the depot and headed to catch a ‘staff cab’ which is paid for by TfL but must be ‘pre-booked’.
Once landing back home, Sarah emphasised that her first job is to give her hands a wash.
‘The first thing I do is immediately wash my hands because the amount of dirt that comes off from working on the tube is disgusting,’ she explained.
‘Then I wash and do my skincare and just chill in bed for a bit before I go to sleep,’ she shared, finishing her day in the early hours of the morning.
