RMT strikes re: 4 day week

[xtmw]

Speaking for Leytonstone at least, booking on has to be done physically, signing a piece of paper which details your duty(ies) for the day.

 

[bramling]

Or are picket lines simply an obsolete concept ?

Varies from place to place, but in a lot of cases they are somewhat irrelevant nowadays. Those who decide to work will work, and those who don't won't.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Mar 2026 ==

Yes it's a national toc....and the 4 day week is pretty widespread nowadays.

The different between NR and LU is the intensity of the work. ATO isn't really a factor, indeed most drivers seem to find ATO work *more* draining than when driving manually. 150-200 station stops in a duty is a lot, and I imagine would compare disfavourably to even the worst NR suburban work.

I would willingly take an I pad rather than carry files of route maps and traction manuals. We already have remote log on for some depots.

LU has some remote booking on where drivers book on with station supervisors rather than managers. However I can't see how it could work across the board. As things stand, the amount of work carried out by crew managers to iron out the seams is considerable, and that's before disruption happens. It just wouldn't work during disruption at a crew relief location where there's trains coming through every 2-3 minutes in both directions with constant crewing issues that need resolving, and that's before someone turns up forgetting their keys, a trainee turns up that no one was expecting, or someone didn't realise there's special working and doesn't know what train they're supposed to be driving.

 

[Moonshot]

Varies from place to place, but in a lot of cases they are somewhat irrelevant nowadays. Those who decide to work will work, and those who don't won't.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Mar 2026 ==



The different between NR and LU is the intensity of the work. ATO isn't really a factor, indeed most drivers seem to find ATO work *more* draining than when driving manually. 150-200 station stops in a duty is a lot, and I imagine would compare disfavourably to even the worst NR suburban work.




LU has some remote booking on where drivers book on with station supervisors rather than managers. However I can't see how it could work across the board. As things stand, the amount of work carried out by crew managers to iron out the seams is considerable, and that's before disruption happens. It just wouldn't work during disruption at a crew relief location where there's trains coming through every 2-3 minutes in both directions with constant crewing issues that need resolving, and that's before someone turns up forgetting their keys, a trainee turns up that no one was expecting, or someone didn't realise there's special working and doesn't know what train they're supposed to be driving.

In terms of stops , the worst docket I have seen was for 92 stops!! We also have stretches of 100mph running. So in reality, you guys are looking at whether you want 5 x7 hours shifts in a week, or 4 x 8 hours 45 minutes. The rest is window dressing if I'm honest. Our 4 day week means that every 3 weeks we get a 5 day long weekend

 

[_toommm_]

How did people find travelling into London on the last strikes? I live near Streatham Hill Station and commute to Oxford Circus, normally via Brixton on the Victoria Line. I've only been in London for two months so not experienced a strike.

The alternative would be a Southern train to Victoria then a walk/bus to Oxford Circus, or the 159 all the way there. As the 159 starts a few stops before Hill station, would that be more favourable?

 

[Mojo]

Don’t expect to be able to get on a bus without a lot of waiting around, and if you are lucky enough to get on one expect it to be largely stuck in traffic spending more time stationary than moving. You can expect it to be like this from roughly 7am until gone 11pm. You can walk from Victoria at Oxford Circus in around half an hour and this will undoubtedly be the quickest way.

 

[Horizon22]

How did people find travelling into London on the last strikes? I live near Streatham Hill Station and commute to Oxford Circus, normally via Brixton on the Victoria Line. I've only been in London for two months so not experienced a strike.

The alternative would be a Southern train to Victoria then a walk/bus to Oxford Circus, or the 159 all the way there. As the 159 starts a few stops before Hill station, would that be more favourable?

NR TOCs running metro routes parallel or adjacent to LU routes tend to get absolutely slammed.

So Southeastern into Victoria, Charing Cross, London Bridge and Charing Cross, SWR to Waterloo, Thameslink for large sections (North Kent, the core and MML), Great Northern for key sections as well. Chiltern where they go alongside the Metropolitan. Southern across parts of South London where there are tube services.

Elizabeth line and Overground will be incredibly busy throughout as will the DLR. Many buses you may not be able to board. I would honestly walk through parts of Zone 1 (particularly Victoria to Oxford Circus) if you can.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Mar 2026 ==

The different between NR and LU is the intensity of the work. ATO isn't really a factor, indeed most drivers seem to find ATO work *more* draining than when driving manually. 150-200 station stops in a duty is a lot, and I imagine would compare disfavourably to even the worst NR suburban work.

I would say Elizabeth line and Overground get quite close regarding number of stops. Nothing will probably beat LU, but there are some reasonable comparisons.

 

[Mawkie]

So in reality, you guys are looking at whether you want 5 x7 hours shifts in a week, or 4 x 8 hours 45 minutes

Not really - it depends on the line, but I only do 4.5 days currently. Yesterday I did 4 hr 23m with a 63 minute meal relief in the middle - a so-called snip turn. I think the contracted hours are averaged over 12 weeks, but could be wrong.

As you point out, it doesn't seem like there are snip turns on the 4DW, but I won't know what I'm agreeing to coz LU don't want to give me the information I need to make a proper decision.

In any case, there are talks on 16th March - at LU's invitation.

 

[_toommm_]

Don’t expect to be able to get on a bus without a lot of waiting around, and if you are lucky enough to get on one expect it to be largely stuck in traffic spending more time stationary than moving. You can expect it to be like this from roughly 7am until gone 11pm. You can walk from Victoria at Oxford Circus in around half an hour and this will undoubtedly be the quickest way.

NR TOCs running metro routes parallel or adjacent to LU routes tend to get absolutely slammed.

So Southeastern into Victoria, Charing Cross, London Bridge and Charing Cross, SWR to Waterloo, Thameslink for large sections (North Kent, the core and MML), Great Northern for key sections as well. Chiltern where they go alongside the Metropolitan. Southern across parts of South London where there are tube services.

Elizabeth line and Overground will be incredibly busy throughout as will the DLR. Many buses you may not be able to board. I would honestly walk through parts of Zone 1 (particularly Victoria to Oxford Circus) if you can.

Thank you both I'll attempt the train from SRH and walk from Victoria.

 

[Snow1964]

How did people find travelling into London on the last strikes? I live near Streatham Hill Station and commute to Oxford Circus, normally via Brixton on the Victoria Line. I've only been in London for two months so not experienced a strike.

The alternative would be a Southern train to Victoria then a walk/bus to Oxford Circus, or the 159 all the way there. As the 159 starts a few stops before Hill station, would that be more favourable?

It's become a lot easier since Thameslink, Elizabeth line and DLR.

Sometimes for journey have to go sort of go sideways to another line and then head into London, takes longer, likely to be crowded, might have to walk a bit. But generally ok.

I moved to London in 1988 for work, and back in 1989 or 1990 there were some national rail and tube strikes on same day. That involved some early buses and long walks to get to office near Fleet Street. Long before internet or working from home was an option. People managed then even if they muttered about wartime spirit. So the modern just some tube lines shut, but not rail, should be manageable.

 

[boiledbeans2]

How did people find travelling into London on the last strikes? I live near Streatham Hill Station and commute to Oxford Circus, normally via Brixton on the Victoria Line. I've only been in London for two months so not experienced a strike.

The alternative would be a Southern train to Victoria then a walk/bus to Oxford Circus, or the 159 all the way there. As the 159 starts a few stops before Hill station, would that be more favourable?

A possiblity could be Streatham/Tulse Hill - (Thameslink) - Farringdon - (Elizabeth Line) - TCR/Bond Street

 

[ricoblade]

How did people find travelling into London on the last strikes? I live near Streatham Hill Station and commute to Oxford Circus, normally via Brixton on the Victoria Line. I've only been in London for two months so not experienced a strike.

The alternative would be a Southern train to Victoria then a walk/bus to Oxford Circus, or the 159 all the way there. As the 159 starts a few stops before Hill station, would that be more favourable?

This thread https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/rmt-industrial-action-5th-12-september-2025.291162/ had a lot of comments and suggetions from last September including my own. As others have said, the Elizabeth Line and Thameslink with long, frequent trains can absorb a lot of traffic and the queues were manageable.

 

[_toommm_]

A possiblity could be Streatham/Tulse Hill - (Thameslink) - Farringdon - (Elizabeth Line) - TCR/Bond Street

Didn't think of that one - thank you.

 

[Moonshot]

Not really - it depends on the line, but I only do 4.5 days currently. Yesterday I did 4 hr 23m with a 63 minute meal relief in the middle - a so-called snip turn. I think the contracted hours are averaged over 12 weeks, but could be wrong.

As you point out, it doesn't seem like there are snip turns on the 4DW, but I won't know what I'm agreeing to coz LU don't want to give me the information I need to make a proper decision.

In any case, there are talks on 16th March - at LU's invitation

Our contract hours are indeed averaged out over 12 weeks....and we do get some small turns in there. We do have Sundays outside the working week as well.....and currently have a lot of Sunday turns at just 5 hours long. I will absolutely guarantee you that a 4 day week is the way to go forward.

 

[Mawkie]

I will absolutely guarantee you that a 4 day week is the way to go forward.

Thanks for your advice, but I think I'm best positioned to know what's best for me.

 

[Moonshot]

Thanks for your advice, but I think I'm best positioned to know what's best for me.

156 rest days per year, plus your annual leave days ( in my case 29 ) means you actually work just under 6 months per year. It's a no brainer, and thousands of rail staff do this already.

 

[bramling]

156 rest days per year, plus your annual leave days ( in my case 29 ) means you actually work just under 6 months per year. It's a no brainer, and thousands of rail staff do this already.

I don’t agree that more rest days is intrinsically better. If it was me I would much rather prefer shorter shift lengths, as it allows much more to be done on the days when one is at work. There’s no point in having extra days off if one is too tired to be able to productively utilise them.

A reminder that LU just isn’t the same as mainline in a number of ways. The work is much more hassle, and the working environment is considerably worse, even on the more recent trains. Noisy, dusty, often too hot even in winter months, tunnel work especially on some lines, and more monotonous. Also generally busier platforms and of course no guards.

 

[bluegoblin7]

Our contract hours are indeed averaged out over 12 weeks....and we do get some small turns in there. We do have Sundays outside the working week as well.....and currently have a lot of Sunday turns at just 5 hours long. I will absolutely guarantee you that a 4 day week is the way to go forward.

As it also hasn't been challenged yet, LU has had Sundays 'inside' for decades now (Company Plan) and there are no proposals to change that. One of many things that make your comparisons somewhat null and void imo, and I see colleagues with far more experience of train side than I do have agreed with such.

It also needs to be restated that the strike is not just about the four-day week itself, but also the terms and conditions changes that come with them. These are the parts that most people are unhappy about - and the parts that are getting other grades, such as my own, twitchy.

 

[RailExplorer]

As it also hasn't been challenged yet, LU has had Sundays 'inside' for decades now (Company Plan) and there are no proposals to change that. One of many things that make your comparisons somewhat null and void imo, and I see colleagues with far more experience of train side than I do have agreed with such.

It also needs to be restated that the strike is not just about the four-day week itself, but also the terms and conditions changes that come with them. These are the parts that most people are unhappy about - and the parts that are getting other grades, such as my own, twitchy.

Have you been shown what a 4-day week could look like? I'm sure I could somehow share a base roster plan from the Elizabeth Line. We do roughly 7.5 weeks at work, working on average a 4.5 day week - and then we have 2.5 weeks off roughly. On average that works out to a 4 day week as some of our AL is built into the roster (we get 30 AL days, but 20 are used within the roster).

There are other TOCs who have an actual 4 day week rather than an average 4 day week. I much prefer the latter.

Sundays are inside the week at Elizabeth Line thankfully - I'm not a fan of Sundays outside the working week. We also spend a fair bit of time inside tunnels (central section and Heathrow - I'd say 40% of driving time is inside the tunnel), a range of ATO and manual driving plus plenty of stops each day - so we are probably the most comparable TOC to LU operations.

Of course, if 5 days suits LU drivers more, than that should 100% be up to them decide that. I'm still not fully up to speed or understanding the other changes so can't really comment on that.

Two wins for me on a 4 day week are... Simply an extra day off every week (once I'm at work, I don't really care too much if I work 7 hours or 9 hours, it's all the same). And secondly, I save a day's commuting time each week - which is easily 2 hours (1 hour each way covering just 8 miles), plus the preparation time getting ready for work. Over a year this equates to about 100 hours or so gained - the equivalent to a further 12 days of work.

 

[Kay_M]

Speaking for Leytonstone at least, booking on has to be done physically, signing a piece of paper which details your duty(ies) for the day.

That's pretty much at every depot. I know Golders does this as well

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Mar 2026 ==

So for those trying to understand the reason for the strikes is a lot of reasons. The 4 day week is essentially being compressed into longer hours. In the sense that they want to get rid of the night duties (minus night tube). So for instance some depots have a whole week of nights and they want to change the start and finishing times of those as that would eliminate the need for the whole week of nights. Now for me personally in terms of Ipads I would get how that would be beneficial as opposed to carrying a bunch of rule books as let's be real we've gone past the paper stage and technology is evolving everyday. Here's where the caveat is now. With new starters I genuinely feel so sorry for them as they're going to get shafted the worst as the line they get given they'll be tied to that line for about 5 years. Within that time one can only choose a depot on the same line which they can move a bit quicker on and another choice would be on a different line which can take up to 5 years. Realistically the only people that will be gaining an advantage on this is those people who are at depots that work well for them and they're not thinking of moving or those that are established, otherwise anyone thinking to transfer depots are literally in the middle in this crossfire as once they move depots if they move again that's when the 5 year tie in starts.

 

[Mawkie]

Have you been shown what a 4-day week could look like? I'm sure I could somehow share a base roster plan from the Elizabeth Line. We do roughly 7.5 weeks at work, working on average a 4.5 day week - and then we have 2.5 weeks off roughly. On average that works out to a 4 day week as some of our AL is built into the roster (we get 30 AL days, but 20 are used within the roster).

There are other TOCs who have an actual 4 day week rather than an average 4 day week. I much prefer the latter.

Sundays are inside the week at Elizabeth Line thankfully - I'm not a fan of Sundays outside the working week. We also spend a fair bit of time inside tunnels (central section and Heathrow - I'd say 40% of driving time is inside the tunnel), a range of ATO and manual driving plus plenty of stops each day - so we are probably the most comparable TOC to LU operations.

Of course, if 5 days suits LU drivers more, than that should 100% be up to them decide that. I'm still not fully up to speed or understanding the other changes so can't really comment on that.

Two wins for me on a 4 day week are... Simply an extra day off every week (once I'm at work, I don't really care too much if I work 7 hours or 9 hours, it's all the same). And secondly, I save a day's commuting time each week - which is easily 2 hours (1 hour each way covering just 8 miles), plus the preparation time getting ready for work. Over a year this equates to about 100 hours or so gained - the equivalent to a further 12 days of work.

This seems like a pretty fair comment to me - and there are lots of LU Train Ops who agree with the points you make. There are definite plusses for working fewer days. Despite my previous posts on the 4DW, I can see all sides of the proposal. For me, it's just whether the plusses outweigh the negatives.

(And yeah, LU have shared what a 4DW would look like on the Bakerloo, with an example roster. For the record, LU are offering an 'average 4DW'.)

 

[RailExplorer]

I can't see any reason why I can't share this - so here is a totally empty base roster that one depot on the EL works to. So we work in blocks of 10 (the next block of 10 is very similar). Well we actually have 15 of these 10 week blocks at my depot. So Line 11/21/31/41 etc would look pretty much like line 1, etc.

In each 10 week block, the darker red is AL (which is built in). Light blue and dark blue are earlies and lates. Plus then we get the 10 ad-hoc AL days per year.

Depot moves sounds like a sticking point. Don't really understand why that should be combined with a 4 day week anyway. Don't new entrants get a choice which line they want? I'm personally not sure how much weight i would give to this. Limited in my honest opinion. On th EL we apply for a certain depot, but they may offer something else. And then we can make one move after 3 years I think it is. That's it though if I remember correctly.

iPads - we use them. No big deal at all and beats stacks of paper. The company just needs to make sure the apps actually work and someone is responsible for updating documents on them. It shouldn't become the drivers responsibility to update documents as you can end up with all sorts of versions being accidentally used.

Compressed hours - naturally a 4 day week will have longer hours on a per day basis. If you take 35 hours and divide by 5, you get 7 hour days on average. 35 hours divided by 4, and you get 8.75 hour days on average. But add in a 1 hour commute each way, plus 30 minutes preparation time and you are actually working:

5 day week: 47.5 hours per week
4 day week: 45 hours per week

It's crazy how much of our life we spend on commuting and preparing for work.

 

[bluegoblin7]

Have you been shown what a 4-day week could look like? I'm sure I could somehow share a base roster plan from the Elizabeth Line. We do roughly 7.5 weeks at work, working on average a 4.5 day week - and then we have 2.5 weeks off roughly. On average that works out to a 4 day week as some of our AL is built into the roster (we get 30 AL days, but 20 are used within the roster).

This was really useful context and information and clearly has had some benefit to the T/Ops in the chat! However I have no view either way on the 4 day week - it doesn’t affect me and the likelihood of a 4 day week being introduced in this way to service control is pretty much nil - we already have rostering set ups that work for us, including 12 hour shifts where necessary. It is a very different environment to train side though so I’ll leave this here…!

 

[Tube driver]

You also have to take into consideration that our meal break (30 min) will now be paid under this deal and form part of the new working week which will be 34hrs (on average).

I think it makes the average working day just 48minutes longer compared to now.

 

[londonbridge]

Going to the Star Trek exhibition at the science museum on Thursday 26 including the imax screening of ST: The Motion Picture. Looks like my easiest options will be Southern to Victoria or LO to West Brompton and a walk.

 

[Drogba11CFC]

Just realised that the London Festival of Railway Modelling is before the strike but the Piccadilly's out of action that weekend anyway.

(Was about to ask how to get from Paddington to Southgate Premier Inn on Saturday night)

 

[Mawkie]

Strikes are suspended for further talks.

(edit to add email which I missed off due to user error)

Ref: LUL/0004



18th March 2026



Dear RMT Member,



4-DAY WORKING WEEK & TRAINS FUNCTIONAL COUNCIL REPRESENTATION LONDON UNDERGROUND



STRIKE ACTION DATES SUSPENDED



BOOK ON FOR ALL SHIFTS ON TUESDAY 24TH MARCH, WEDNESDAY 25TH MARCH, THURSDAY 26TH MARCH AND FRIDAY 27TH MARCH



Your RMT Lead Officer and Trains Function Council (TFC) Reps attended dispute resolution talks with LUL on Monday and clearly stated that the Company's current proposals for a compressed working week are unacceptable and that the Union will not allow them to be imposed.



The Company confirmed the outcome of these talks in writing today and your Lead Officer, TFC Reps and Local Trains Reps met at Unity House this afternoon to discuss the contents of the correspondence.



In summary, LUL is going to explore several new ideas presented by the Union regarding how a four-day week could be delivered. This detailed work will commence and LUL has committed to giving a full response before the planned strike action in April. LUL has also confirmed that talks at TFC regarding the voluntary implementation of the current 4-day week proposals will be paused while this work is ongoing.



LUL has agreed to begin discussions to negotiate an increase in the number of local representatives and a meeting will be arranged within the next two weeks to begin this process.



The National Executive Committee has considered this matter and noted that a clear majority of our Reps at the meeting today were in favour of suspending the strike action scheduled for next week and notifying LUL of additional strike action on 16th and 18th June.



These actions will allow for the negotiations offered by LUL, on all elements of the imposed proposals, to proceed over the next three weeks. The other strike action dates currently remain in place should acceptable progress not be made and the action short of strike to refuse to use any new company-issued electronic will commence from 00:01 hours on Friday 20th March 2026, until further notice.



I will of course keep you advised of all further developments.



To clarify, the strike action dates now, are as follows:



· 12:00 (midday) hours on Tuesday 21st April to 11:59 hours on Wednesday 22nd April



· 12:00 (midday) hours on Thursday 23rd April to 11:59 hours on Friday 24th April



· 12:00 (midday) hours on Tuesday 19th May to 11:59 hours on Wednesday 20th May



· 12:00 (midday) hours on Thursday 21st May to 11:59 hours on Friday 22nd May



· 12:00 (midday) hours on Tuesday 16th June to 11:59 hours on Wednesday 17th June



· 12:00 (midday) hours on Thursday 18th June to 11:59 hours on Friday 19th June



Yours sincerely,



Eddie Dempsey
General Secretary

 

[High Dyke]

Strikes are suspended for further talks.

https://x.com/i/status/2034305487856939048

Tube union RMT, have suspended strikes this month following progress in talks with London Underground management.

The dispute over the imposition of a condensed hours four-day week on tube drivers is far from over but LU management have taken steps in the right direction and are now taking the matter seriously.

All other strike dates from April onwards remain in place and additional strike action on 16 and 18 June has been put in place.

 

[OscarH]

Strikes are suspended for further talks.

(edit to add email which I missed off due to user error)

This was well timed by the RMT, I got TfL's email telling me about the strike going ahead at 16:34 which had to be corrected less than an hour later

 

[fIIsion]

As a ‘crew manager ‘ on LUL I have my own reservations regarding the implementation of iPads and remote booking on

 

[Mattplans]

A couple of months back I was on one of the first trains from Stratford to Shenfield on a Sunday morning. Having originated at London Liv St (NR platforms), the train was busier than you might expect for that time of the day.

Taking my seat opposite two young men in LU uniforms, they were discussing if it would be possible to implement more iPads and technology on the Underground. One of the lads, in their loud conversation stated "You can't do that [some proposal to implement iPads/tech improvements for more grades one might assume] because there are too many 'aunties' in TfL".

For the sake of this explanation, you can understand the use of 'aunties' to mean older individuals that are technology-averse. This leads me to wonder if there is a culture of resistance to embracing technology at London Underground when it could lead to improvements in the way things operate. These two individuals (one of which still had a radio attached; couldn't figure out why - perhaps he had forgotten to remove it when ending his shift?) certainly seemed to believe so. I had imagined they had just finished their night tube shifts.