London Subway Strike

Has anyone had to deal with this (supposedly) bad strike going on?

Lots of people here. Not me though, as I live about 4 minutes walk from the office. And not Jason, who is lucky enough to only use overland trains. I think Ian has it worst on the team in terms of suffering from the Tube strike. He's stuck at home for the duration.

Yeah Ian seems to spend about 90% of his twitter time complaining about the trains

My overland train has been slightly busier but much fartier. Conclusion: tube users stink.

Fun fact: the Tube carries as many people every day as the entire national rail network.

I have been enjoying Ian's rants on the tube strike somewhat!

Bloody lot of them need their heads banging together.

I have no sympathy for any of them, and I'm a sodding socialist.

Their pay demands are ridiculous, they essentially want to be immune from being sacked and all of this while providing a shocking bad, rude and downright irritating service.

For my £200 a month I get a stinking train (the one I went home on before the strike has vomit all over it) a ride that's so bumpy it feels like being on the open sea. The staff think they don't have to explain any decision or failure, and if you question them, or get angry you'll get yourself done for abuse.

Every year the fares increase, and every year the service either gets worse or stays the same. My pay hasn't gone up this year, so I'm actually worse off than I was last year. And all of this to drag myself across the city in conditions that you wouldn't subject animals to.

It's a disgrace, and those selfish striking bastards can kiss my satchel.

Holy crap. Never knew that.

I'm going to get that made into a badge. With Ian's disembodied head on it.

So, you don't like the tube then?

I will play devils advocate here as someone who worked on the railway (not the tube) and striked a few times over pay.

first of all, the condition of the trains, network etc are not the fault of the staff but the people who run it (the top managers who prob got a huge pay rise). The media are prob not telling the whole story (this always happened in the past) and I bet they are getting paid a lot less than the people who work at C-Net.

I am not trying to start a flame war here, just trying to balance this a little and Matthew... it's called the underground or the tube and not the subway (you are not American!)

Tomayto, tomahto.

Yeah, my dad works for Network Rail in Bristol. Of course he knows that trains are constantly late, but it's not necessarily his fault. Quite often he gets people trying to commit suicide on the line, which means that he might have to divert a train to a different route, or he might have to stop the train alltogether. Though this probably shouldn't be a problem for the London Underground because, lets face it, if you touch that electrical rail you're pretty much dead. Even then, you'd have to call the police in to sort it out, etc.

Basically i'm agreeing with redmozzy here, it's pretty much managers making stupid decisions. Though Ians anger here towards the strike is pretty much justified to be honest.

I haven't been to London in anout 2 years, but the last time I used the Tube (From London Paddington to London Victoria and vice versa) all I remember is how horribly overcrowded it was. You'll be lucky to get a seat and even luckier to get on/off a train at all.

And are they really worrying about job security? I don't think that they really have to worry about a shortage of customers any time soon. The Tube is pretty much essential for Londoners.

Actually, while typing this, i've just wondered how the hell public transport in London is going to cope when the Olympics are on.

I think I could rant about this for a while, and it doesn't even affect me, so i'll shut up.

Also, CNETers, I'm going to be in London in early August. Fancy meeting up?

I might be there too, so why the damn what-ho bloody hell not?

I probably won't be able to, but I shall keep an eye on proceedings because, y'know, you never know, y'know.

I thought you were under 18, maybe that's someone else

That would be me. I think i'm the second youngest person here or something.

A station superviser earns £35,000-£39,000, while a tube driver's starting salary is just over £40,000, according to TfL. I can't speak for anyone else who works here, but that's an awful lot more than I get paid. That's more than teachers, dentists, RAF pilots and London policemen.

Part of the strike was that the union wanted two drivers reinstated who were sacked, one for lying about a massive safety failure (he opened the doors on the wrong side), the other for stealing.

Bob Crow said his members shouldn't have to pay for an economic crisis caused by politicians and bankers. Well tough s*** Bob, the rest of us do.

I don't understand why they get so much, they don't even have to steer the damn thing

They earn that much and they're complaining? I'd happily drive a train for that much. If only I lived in London, eh?

LOL, well I was a signalman and never earn't that much but hey ho. The job is more stressfull than you would think but yeah, I never realised they earn't that much.

Anyway, I was just playing devils advocate (for some reason) but if that is the reason for the strike then yes, that is wrong.

A bus driver has more to do, they have to steer, accelerate, brake and watch out for other people/cars so surely that is much more stressfull

Dude, you live about 30 miles from me. We almost went the same college!

You are. Junel is the youngest, I think.

I love it how they call opening the doors on the wrong side of the train a "severe safety issue" and not "severe mental and physical retardation".

lol

I call it 'hilarious'.

A lot of the tubes ran as normal. The Northern line was just delayed. I've seen it worse on a normal day.

Personally I think they've shot themselves in the foot. Scheduling the strike against an England game was just cyncial and everybody saw that.

It's a bit rude.