The 2nd Tube Strike Looms

And so it begins again - later today the RMT and TSSA unions will start the second of their 24-hour strikes.

Although starting tonight has led to some wags to comment that with so much weekend engineering work going on, you might not even notice the strike. However, the main impact will be tomorrow morning, with effects still being felt on the way home in the evening for most lines.

The strike formally starts at 6:30pm tonight (7pm for Metronet staff), but as last time, the trains don't all suddenly stop at once, as staff continue working until the end of their shift. Likewise, on Monday evening, the restoration of services is staggered based on working shifts.

Specific advice from TfL is that there will be no service on the Hammersmith & City line after 9pm; No service on the Jubilee line between Waterloo and Stanmore after 10pm and no service on the Metropolitan line after 10pm. On Monday, they expect to be able to run some trains on all lines except the Circle line, but some sections of lines may have no service.

Depending on how strong the support for the strike is, the trains could be largely unaffected, or so scarce as to render the service impotent.

As last time, more buses and staff are being deployed, and the DLR, River and Overground services are largely unaffected.

Closed Jubilee Line station at Canary Wharf

While the strike is the most visible side of the dispute, there is also an ongoing overtime ban by staff, which is presumably there to show how the network needs the staff that London Underground says are not necessary.

In addition though, the Friday before last, the RMT stepped up its action by instructing staff to ignore a requirement that Oyster top-ups have a minimum value of £5 when processes by the ticket office. Also, staff are not to substitute for the Station Supervisor when the Supervisor is not available.

Whether that further escalation has any real impact is maybe something our readers can comment on?

With both the Mayor's office and the unions refusing to budge on the need to reduce manpower on the network, and the unions slowly escalating the non-strike action, it looks likely that this will be a long running saga.

At the moment, the next two 24-hours strikes are pencilled to start at 9pm on Tuesday 2nd November and 7pm on Sunday 28th November.

Maybe we should take our cue from Annie Mole and book a holiday for those days?