30/04/2014 BBC London News

Welcome to BBC London News. A 48`hour tube strike came to an end

at 9pm this evening. The dispute is over the closure of ticket offices.

Fresh talks are to take place on Friday between London Underground

and the RMT Union to try and prevent another walk`out, this time for

three days, planned for next week. Here's our transport correspondent

Tom Edwards. The strike is now over but today there's another weary

resignation, as again the RMT strike hit London's Tube. Commuters

struggled into work and back home again. I couldn't get the train

because it was full. I'm waiting for the bus. There was an hour wait for

cabs at Paddington. Data from TfL shows nine out of ten regular Oyster

users still used its services. Many switched to buses, old Routemaster

's were again in service today. The rest stayed at home or found other

ways to get to work. The roads were a lot more congested than usual. For

example, junction four of the M4 to Piccadilly, which would normally

take an hour, was taking something like two hours 45 minutes. This

dispute is about the closure of all ticket offices. London Underground

says they are underused, and 950 job losses. This was in Loudon. As

usual, there was claim and counterclaim over the real impact of

the strike. I'm going to be late to work because of the strike. It's a

huge inconvenience. The journeys that I've had to make, it's been

very easy and NT. I do apologise to everybody who's been having a tough

time of it this morning. Today, answering calls on a phone in, the

mayor said he'd been told by the Prime Minister that tougher strike

clause will be a priority if the Conservatives form the next

government. I've had it from his lips in public that on day one of a

new Cameron administration, let's hope it's a majority government, he

will be able to deliver a deal that gives us exactly the protection I

think Londoners want. Downing Street say they have no plans to introduce

a strike law on day one, although nothing is off the table long term.

The RMT has accused the mayor of posturing. Talks are planned for

Friday. We don't think ticket offices are part of our future, but

we wait to hear constructive ideas from the trade unions. I look

forward to constructive thoughts from the RMT, but you don't have

constructive thoughts when you hold London to ransom. What is quite

clear, unfortunately, is London Underground are turning around

saying, you can have a review but the booking offices will close. To

us, that's not the proper way to have a review because you are

pre`determining the outcome. Tomorrow the Tube will be back to

normal. At the moment, though, three days of strikes planned for next

week. The first strike ended this evening, but when will services get

back to normal for commuters? Louisa Preston is outside Great Portland

Street station with the latest. Yes, the strike finished an hour and

a half ago but, as you can see from behind big, stations are still

closed. A number of stations are closed tonight across the entire

network, causing lots of disruption for people trying to get home or

you've been out for the evening. London Underground are saying

services will be up and running normally tomorrow morning. What we

have seen as people who have struggled for the last couple of

days won't be happy to hear that the RMT union is planning further

strikes the next week, starting on the Bank Holiday and lasting for

three days. We do know that fresh talks are taking place at ACAS on

Friday. The good news is both sides are still talking, but we do seem a

long way from any sort of agreement. The European Court of Justice has

rejected the UK's challenge to the introduction of an EU financial

transactions tax, which ministers have said will damage London's

economy. The court described the challenge as premature, since the

details of the tax had not been finalised. The UK says it's prepared

to take further legal action. Chris Rogers reports. Anger over bank

bonuses and salaries outside Barclays' annual general meeting

last week. For many, the root of our economic crisis lies with the greed

of banks. Since the heat of the credit crunch and the eurozone

prices, there's been a determination to make the bankers give something

back to the taxpayers. In this atmosphere of anger, the EU proposed

a tax on transactions, often called the Robin Hood tax will stop a small

charge on trades in equities and bonds across the EU's markets,

including London. This tax would rebalance the economy, it would stop

the gambling of the city, it would make sure that the city paid back

some of the money that we all lost because of the financial crisis that

they caused. And would give government the money to save public

services, like the NHS. The Government is refusing to sign up to

the tax and today lost its legal challenge the European Court of

justice. It argued that increasing costs will mean London's financial

centre will lose up to competition in New York or Singapore. The value

of our savings, pensions and much of the economy relies on things going

well over there. They need to make money not lose it. That's why the

Government and our own London mayor have vowed to carry on challenging

the EU's proposal for a transaction tax. The debate is over whether they

are backing the bankers or you. The taxpayer. The Government is

undoubtedly sticking up for the British taxpayer in its bill against

the financial transaction tax. RS Dummett are that if the FTT was

introduced, it could cost the UK taxpayer ?3.6 billion. Despite the

likelihood of more legal challenges, the European Court's position

matters. The Government's determination to protect the City of

London is seen as a test of the UK's influence over the EU. It

failed, and the European elections are just round the corner. That's

all from me so I'll wish you a very goodnight. And hand you over to

Helen Willets for a look at the weather.

Come tomorrow evening, some pretty miserable weather coming through

with big thunderstorms. For tonight, a lot more cloud around than last

night and some patchy rain and drizzle. Again, a lot of misty, low

cloud, potentially some fog. A relatively mild night. Getting off

to a little bit of a great start for tomorrow, but hopefully things will

brighten up through the morning. Come the afternoon, there's the

potential for some slow`moving, heavy and thundery downpours, which

could lead to localised flooding. A little bit, not as bright as today

and there is already a warning out from the Met Office for those

potential torrential downpours. Fewer in number, Friday but still

quite a cloudy day. Getting colder as well. The outlook, it shows you

it will get cooler as we had through the

it will get cooler as we had through the weekend but brighter, although

gardeners beware, night-time frosts. It was a day of contrasts across the

UK today, rain coming in from the West but in the south-east, like

winds and sunshine, up to 20 degrees. Contrast that with six

degrees in the East of Scotland. In between we've seen some

thunderstorms and more general showers coming in to the western

side of the UK. Northern Ireland, Wales and the south-west. The best

chance of staying dry is across Lincolnshire and East Anglia. A lot

of cloud around generally overnight, some patches of mist and

maybe a few patches of fog as well. The lowest temperatures will be in

the far north of the UK, but the Northern Isles will also see