We asked Londoners how their life is impacted when London Underground strikes take place.
The latest set of planned strikes were called off last minute.
The latest set of planned strikes were called off last minute.
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00:00 Obviously the underground strikes have just been cancelled, but in general how much does
00:04 the kind of strikes and rail disruption disrupt your life?
00:09 Yeah it is quite disruptive. I run a charity, I run a children's cancer charity, and it's
00:14 things like, while I definitely support workers' right to strike, it was when they decided
00:21 to hold a strike over the London Marathon weekend, which is the biggest earner for charities
00:26 like mine. So it definitely is disruptive in that way. I think that obviously the whole
00:34 working from home culture has made it I think a little bit more problematic for strikes
00:38 to have an impact on people, so that's what they were going for the whole week. So yeah
00:44 I think it is detrimental to businesses, it's detrimental to people who really need to get
00:51 to work, so it hurts other sort of minimum wage workers as well. So I don't really know
00:58 what the answer is, but I'm very glad it was called off at the last minute.
01:03 Not really. I don't use public transport much. I've got my Over 60 Oyster card now, so it's
01:09 free. So pretty much if I'm going around on the buses, which I don't really use, but I
01:14 do use the trains occasionally to go up to town, I think it's brilliant. I just tap my
01:17 little card, get on and it's free. The disruption hasn't disrupted me because I'm not a regular
01:22 user, I'm not a commuter, so it's not an issue I know much about. I don't have any grievance
01:29 yet. I'm sure those people that actually need the service regularly, and it has to be utterly
01:35 reliable, are probably fuming.
01:37 I mean I support anyone's right to strike. It doesn't affect me at all really. I mean
01:45 if and when it does, I just work around it. Yeah, I mean I travel all over London, but
01:50 I mean it's no big deal.
01:51 What do you do if there are underground strikes? Will you just rearrange your plans or will
01:56 you just get other modes of transport?
01:58 I just go to a regular rail line and walk usually, I mean, or get the bus. Yeah, I mean
02:05 hardly seems like a big deal really.
02:08 I think London is quite a convenient place for travel. I think it should be maintained
02:15 a bit better. I think the taxpayer does foot it quite a bit. As for me, finding it an inconvenience,
02:26 it can be because I travel to the north of England quite a lot. I've got family up there,
02:30 so I guess cancellations, having to change halfway through a journey maybe.
02:36 What do you find worse? Do you find the national rail more difficult or the London travel?
02:41 It teeters. It teeters between them. So for whatever money they say they're putting into
02:48 things for improvement, for paying other people, I think they could do a bit more in terms
02:56 of satisfying the employer, the employee and the traveller.