Alert – Strikes Impacting London’s Underground and British Airways (January 8, 2017)

Alert – Strikes Impacting London’s Underground and British Airways (January 8, 2017)

Striking workers will cause travel issues for individuals taking the London Tube on Monday, particularly in the city center. In addition, cabin crew members from British Airways will strike for two days, starting on Tuesday.

According to the UK’s Guardian:

Rail, air and London Underground services will be hit by strikes this week, leaving many commuters, particularly those in London and the south-east, facing a difficult start to the first full working week of 2017.

A 24-hour walkout by London Underground staff is expected to cause havoc on Monday by closing tube stations in the centre of the capital. British Airways flights from Heathrow are expected to be disrupted by a strike among cabin crew on Tuesday, and London’s commuters face another round of chaos as drivers on the troubled Southern franchise begin three days of strikes.

The London Underground strike started at 6pm on Sunday, as station staff in the RMT and TSSA unions shut tube stations in the centre of the capital, bringing many evening services to an early end. A limited number of routes in outer boroughs will run on Monday.

All zone one stations are closed, along with all those on the Victoria, and Waterloo and City lines. Transport for London has put on extra buses, but said roads and National Rail services would be much busier than usual, slowing journeys for all commuters.

Thousands of British Airways cabin crew will start a two-day strike on Tuesday over what their union, Unite, describes as poverty pay.

Despite the action, the airline said it would ensure all customers reached their destinations. Some flights from Heathrow had been cancelled or “merged”, with passengers put on alternative departures on the same day as their booked flights. The airline said flights from Gatwick and City airports would not be affected.

The Transport for London website states:

Tube services are severely reduced and some stations are closed from Sunday evening until the end of service on Monday 9 January. This means that the majority of stations in Zone 1 are closed.

 The strike is by station staff, which means many Tube stations may not open at all, particularly in Zone 1

 Those that do open are likely to open after 0700 and close by 1900 on Monday 9 January

 It is only possible for us to run severely restricted underground services

 

 Other transport services, including buses, DLR and London Overground, are expected to be much busier than usual

 We are running the best service possible with the number of employees available

 Where services are running, we advise customers to complete Tube journeys by 1800 on both Sunday and Monday

 We expect normal services to resume by the morning of Tuesday 10 January

According to the British Airways website:

All British Airways customers will be able to fly to their destinations on Tuesday 10 January and Wednesday 11 January despite proposed industrial action by Unite.

We can confirm that:

 all flights to and from London Gatwick will operate as normal

 all flights to and from London City will operate as normal

 the vast majority of flights to and from London Heathrow will operate as normal

As part of our contingency plan, we will be merging a very small number of flights to and from Heathrow. This will mean some customers will travel slightly earlier or later in the day than their original booking. Customers affected are being contacted with the options available for them.