The strike is being organized by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union. These are the folks who keep your train moving—the station staff, the ticket office workers, the people who clean the carriages after someone spills a full kebab at 2 AM. They’re walking out over a dispute about jobs, pensions, and working conditions. Sounds reasonable, until you realize you’ll now have to walk to Zone 6 in dress shoes.
Here’s a surprising fact: London Underground staff earn an average salary of around £56,000 a year—but that doesn’t include the emotional toll of scraping a half-eaten pasty off a seat. Still, you can bet your Oyster card that a lot of commuters will be grumbling about “how much they get paid” while stuck in a traffic jam on the Finchley Road.
What does this mean for you?
If you normally take the Tube on April 21, expect the apocalypse. Well, the transport apocalypse. That means almost no service on most lines, and the few trains that run will be packed tighter than a sardine can at a cat convention. The Bakerloo, Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria, and Waterloo & City lines are expected to be hit hardest.
Pro tip: The Overground and DLR might still run, but everyone else will have the same idea. You’ll be standing shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers, breathing their coffee breath, and questioning every life choice that led you to this moment. It’s like a silent disco, but with no music and more desperation.
