Tonight's 24 hour tube strike is set to cause major disruption across the entire network, and the wider London transport system. The full impact won't become clear until the strike starts, TfL have already made contingency plans including marshalled taxi ranks, escorted cycle routes and extra boat services. If your tube service is disrupted consider some of these options especially when heading home from Central London as bus services tend to be massively over-subscribed. Best advice, check TfL's website before you travel.As I was renewing my season ticket this morning the helpful lady at the counter reminded me that they were going on strike this evening. Hers, she informed me, was one of the jobs under threat. Regular readers will know that I'm not generally in favour of strikes - there never seem to be any winners and the general public always seem to be the losers. I do agree with the need to preserve ticket offices though. Using two crutches I find the self service machines extremely difficult to deal with - I've also never managed to get them to sell me more than one ticket at a time; I always queue for the ticket office. That said - there often seem plenty of extra staff at tube stations with several 'manning' the gates.
My journey this morning had a premature disruption when I arrived at North Greenwich to discover that the buses were using the 'emergency' stops on the road and not the bus station. The bus station itself was shrouded in blue and white "do not cross" police tape - although only a couple of officers on sentry duty were visible. It turns out that there were several stabbings last night and the police were investigating. Hope they are finished now as my journey home tonight doesn't need any more chaos than strictly necessary!