London commuters face a tough journey as Underground workers strike leaving millions facing a lengthy journey to work, with unions describing support for the walk-out as “rock solid”.
London Underground (LU) said almost 40 per cent of its trains were running.
Only the Northern line was reporting a good service, although many stations were closed.
The Circle and District line was fully suspended.
Trains on the Bakerloo, Victoria, District, Central, Piccadilly, Hammersmith and City, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines remain partly suspended, with commuters facing lengthy delays during this morning’s rush hour.
“Some 194 out of a total of 500 Tube trains are in operation, providing a service on all but one of London’s Tube lines,” a LU spokesman said.
100 buses were added to existing routes, and extra capacity was added to river services on the Thames.
The 24-hour strike is the first of what could be a series of disputes during October and November.
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Unions say plans to cut 800 jobs from ticket offices could threaten public safety.
However London Underground says there will be no compulsory redundancies from the move, which it said was designed to better reflect passengers’ ticket-buying patterns.
Mike Brown, London Underground’s managing director, said: “The RMT and TSSA leaderships have chosen to disrupt Londoners for no good reason. The safety argument they now deploy – which has never been raised in any formal forum – is completely without foundation. It is simple scaremongering designed to mask their wish to strike.
“Londoners will doubtless find it incredible that the two union leaderships are pursing this action when they have been given cast-iron assurances that the staffing changes we are making come with no compulsory redundancies, that every station that currently has a ticket office will retain one, and that every station will remain staffed at all times.”
Union leaders said that support for the strike among its members remained strong.
Maintenance staff had walked out first on Monday at 5pm, followed by drivers, signallers and station staff four hours later.
Bob Crow, the RMT general-secretary, joined picketers outside Euston station said the walk-out had brought major disruption.
“The message to the Mayor and his transport officials is clear – stop playing fast and loose with safety, stop the drive towards unstaffed stations, drop the threat of these lethal cuts and start meaningful talks on a safe and secure future for the London Tube system,” he said.
“Our members have shown in their rock-solid support for this action that they will not sit idly by while staffing levels are hacked to the bone and the management open the door to a major disaster.”