RMT calls off Tube Strike

If you're looking for news on the April 2008 Tube Strike please click here

Although there was a three-to-one vote in favour of strike action on February 19 by RMT's 6,500 London Underground members, you'll be pleased to hear that threatened strike has been called off. LUL have agreed to the four per cent wage increase, with no strings attached.

The RMT's site says "the breakthrough was due to the fact that the union's LUL members had shown they were not prepared to be pushed around."

Union leader Bob Crow added: "Management's decision has, at last, opened the way for the implementation of last year's pay deal. If London Underground management had not attempted to attach strings to the deal in the first place then we could have drawn a line under this matter more than a year ago."

The three-year agreement runs from April 2006 to April 2009 and provides for the following pay increases:

* Year 1 (payable from April 2006): 4 per cent
* Year 2 (payable from April 2007): RPI+0.5 per cent (or 3 per cent whichever is greater)
* Year 3 (payable from April 2008): RPI+0.6 per cent (or 3 per cent whichever is greater)

All Underground staff are also eligible for a bonus of £250 or £500 each year if customer satisfaction targets are met or exceeded. Ah that's just reminded me to put in my second customer charter refund claim of the day, but I digress.

Sheriff Ken said "This three-year agreement is great news for both Tube passengers and staff and is a real landmark achievement. Passengers will benefit from the stability provided by the first three-year deal for all staff in the history of the Underground."

Walkers Tube Map

No, crisp giant Walkers haven't decided to sponsor the Tube Map, but a group of postgraduate students from Central St Martin's College of Art have put together a map for zone 1 which shows the walking distances between London Underground Stations. It's a pretty impressive project which they only had a week to put together and they managed to meet their aim of "creating a buzz about a topic to affect positive change."



Tube map "fans" may remember that in 2003 rodcorp put together a map of the entire network, which showed when it would probably be quicker to walk rather than take the Tube and there's obviously comparisons to be made.


The students hope that their project will cut overcrowding on the Tube and encourage more people to switch to a healthy & environmentally friendly transport alternative - ie walking. Whereas Rodcorp's map points out that in a number of cases it's simply quicker to walk and he sees it as "an interesting exercise".

Rodcorp's map (which was mentioned on BBC London News) is based on station to station distances, whereas the students spent one week walking between Tube stations and noting how long it took.

Sara Palocios said "It was a very hectic week and we were really tired by the end of it." She admits that some timings may challenge slower walkers and says they were calculated on a "moderate speed". "For example I walked between High Street Ken and Notting Hill Gate in 12 minutes at quite a fast rate. It's not a relaxing walk but as if you were in a bit of a hurry".

The students were featured in London Lite and The Evening Standard yesterday and have been handing out the maps at Holborn Tube. According the papers they now plan to patent the map after making some changes to deal with copyright issues.

Coincidentally, coming home last night I noticed that Flora are running a campaign on the side of buses with the message "Could you walk it quicker?".


Apparently they are on taxis too. But I wonder if the Tube would ever be brave enough to carry this type of advertising wrapped around a whole train?

There are a number of posters in carriages encouraging people to walk between Leicester Square & Covent Garden mainly to ease congestion rather than for speed or health reasons though. Perhaps if Rodcorp's and the students maps become more popular, we may find TfL endorsing the maps in some way or even creating official versions. Although I'm sure there'd be various legal riders on the map about when the walking was carried out and no end of argument about how fast an average walker walks.

Tube Delay Refund Record

TfL pays five million quid in three years

I often wondered how many people used the Customer Charter refund for delays on the Tube and now I know. Yesterday figures were released which showed a record number of claims for delays on the London Underground. The total number of claims almost doubled from 261,725 in 2004 to 447,626 last year.

The Metropolitan line had the highest number of complaints last year, with 97,773 passengers applying for refunds, up from 60,853 in 2004 - but down from 111,504 in 2005.

The Central line was also poor with 92,336 refunds last year, compared with 58,783 in 2004, and surprsingly the Northern line was third on the list with 56,805 claims, compared with 29,755 two years before. Perhaps delays are such an everyday occurance on the Misery Line that it becomes a normal part of the journey and regular commuters can't be bothered.

The number of refunds claimed from commuters using the Piccadilly line more than doubled, from 25,282 in 2004 to 51,619 last year.

The Waterloo & City line was the only line to show a fall - but that's probably because it wasn't running for much of the time and was closed for five months.

Stephen Hammond, MP for Wimbledon and the Conservative transport spokesman who uncovered the figures said they showed the Mayor was not delivering value for money.

He said: "Ken Livingstone talks a great deal about his £10billion investment plan for London transport. These figures show just how little he has achieved with all that money. The Mayor's council tax precept keeps on rising and fares have gone through the roof but commuters' journeys just get worse."

According to the Evening Standard TfL were unavailable for comment. I would urge people to keep claiming when they get delayed. Less than half a million claims in a year is still a drop in the ocean considering there were 971 million passenger journeys in 2005/2006. This year I've already received £20 from the Customer Charter refunds for delays on the District Line and it's not even two months into the year. It takes about three minutes to make your claim and at the moment the refunds have come back within a few weeks.

Not on the London Underground

Roundels not on the Tube

Thanks to Jon Allen for managing to spot a very realistic looking Abbey Road in Seoul. He said "It's for a cafe/bar in the Apgujeong district of Seoul."



Also Lewis' spot in York, means that TfL's lawyers won't have too far to travel if they think this is an infringement of the use of the roundel:



Lewis said: "Slight rip-off of the Harry Beck classic here; showing locations of various pubs in the York area. I think the lines are supposed to be bus routes, but they're numbered and coloured wrong if so..."

Thanks to both, and please, keep them coming in so I can add to the growing Flickr set.

London Underground Fashions Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

It's Friday and time again for the TFV's or Tube Fashion Victims, commuters spotted on the Underground with their own special look.

Backwards Coat

A guest post this week snapped by John Spier at Kings Cross


He said, "It appears to be a coat with the buttons on the back!". Which begs the questions - did it have matching buttons on the front? Or perhaps there were no buttons on the front and she was going for the straitjacket or rather straitcoat look.

When your man bag's too small

Nice Metrosexual look going on here:


Gucci designer belt, check. Calvin Klein underwear showing at just the right level, check. Over shoulder man bag, check. Box fresh white trainers, check. Woolly gloves hanging from belt. Erm, not so sure.

I suppose it puts you in a bit of a quandary when your pockets are too small to hold your gloves. Particularly if you don't want any disturbance to the smooth lines of your skinny jeans or denim jacket. But why didn't he put them in his man bag? I could be doing him a disservice here, as it might not be a man bag, but a camera bag. Although judging by the rest of the metrosexual look, I think my first instinct is correct. Perhaps it's an unusual winter version of the hanky code.

That's it for now. The previous set of victims can be found here and the complete picture gallery can be seen on the following Flickr set.