London tube strike hits commuters

Commuters and soccer fans endured travel chaos yesterday as a 48-hour strike hit most of the capital's underground rail network.

Faced with closed stations and enormous queues for buses, millions of people either walked, cycled or even roller-skated to work.

Supporters heading to an England soccer World Cup qualifier against Andorra at Wembley in northwest London were urged to set out early to avoid missing the start of the game.

London Underground drivers, station staff and maintenance workers walked out at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in support of industrial action called by the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union over pay and jobs.

But London Underground bosses said services were running on nearly all lines by early evening yesterday, with a good service on the Northern Line and a "decent" service on the Jubilee Line, which serves Wembley.

"Clearly, support for the RMT leadership's actions is far from the level they were expecting," said London's Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy.

The RMT said it had been close to agreeing a suspension of the strike minutes before it was due to start and accused politicians at London's City Hall of scuppering the deal.

"This is my 31st year as a member of this union and a worker on London Underground and in all that time I have never experienced such dishonesty from any management that I have dealt with," said RMT General Secretary Bob Crow.

Struggling passengers, who had little sympathy for the striking rail workers, grumbled about the infrequency of buses, despite promises of extra services. Doctor Kalpa Desilva, 27, travelling from the East End to central London said the disruption had added an extra 30 minutes to his journey.

"If they wanted to help, they could put on extra buses. When one thing collapses the whole network collapses," he said.

"If everyone started striking whenever there was a bit of grief the whole world would come to a standstill."

Transport chiefs arranged taxi-sharing at major rail termini and laid on free river services and guided commuter cycle routes.

The 250-mile underground network normally runs over 500 trains at peak hours and carries some 3.5 million passengers a day.

Docklands Light Railway and London Overground services operated normally.

The strike, which officially ends at 7 p.m. today, is likely to cause disruption into tomorrow morning.