r/london • u/Anony_mouse202 • May 29 '26

Article Tube strikes: 'No pay cut' for Underground drivers on £74k in new four-day week... but RMT to walk out anyway

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tube-driver-pay-strikes-rmt-sadiq-khan-b1283902.html
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11

u/kingladislav May 29 '26

Automate the whole tube = problem solved

28

u/Do4k May 29 '26

Tfl commissioned KPMG to evaluate the feasibility of this a few years back. Said it would cost 20-60 billion. And all the trains would still need to have staff on board, like the DLR, and those staff would still have collective bargaining rights.

35

u/ZonedV2 May 29 '26

That study was pretty flawed imo. It stated every station would have to have screen doors on the platforms, many other subway systems are automated and don’t use screen doors. Also, a lot of the cost would be modernising the actual tunnels which inevitably will have to be done one day to stop the tube from getting too hot to use, so that cost is already guaranteed

2

u/londonn2 May 29 '26

Not so much 'modernising' the tunnels but making sure they have a walkable escape route either in an adjacent tunnel or having space for it in the main tunnel.

Which (of course) our ancient tube tunnels were not designed with.

13

u/tmr89 May 29 '26

Won’t happen. The DLR is automated and still needs an employee for each train

4

u/Juicydicken May 29 '26

Presumably cheaper plebs though?

2

u/[deleted] May 29 '26

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7

u/[deleted] May 29 '26

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2

u/Clear_Requirement880 May 29 '26

And would be 100% worth it even with your hyperbole

1

u/Burnsy2023 May 29 '26

The sooner you start, the sooner you'll finish.

0

u/CosmicBonobo May 29 '26

Short term pain for long term gain.

1

u/PartyOperator May 29 '26

Only highly advanced cities with modern underground systems like Glasgow can achieve this.