:00:11. > :00:15.Welcome to BBC London News with me Riz Lateef.
:00:16. > :00:18.The Prime Minister's called it "unfair and
:00:19. > :00:22.Millions of commuters struggled with journeys today as the tube
:00:23. > :00:25.strike closed all underground stations in central London -
:00:26. > :00:28.Services won't be fully back to normal until at
:00:29. > :00:39.Our Transport Correspondent Tom Edwards is at Oxford Circus station,
:00:40. > :00:50.It doesn't look too promising. Frustrating day for many, Tom. Yes,
:00:51. > :00:55.this strike finished more than four hours ago but as you can see many
:00:56. > :00:57.stations in zone one remain shut. This strike has had a considerable
:00:58. > :01:00.impact. It has been a long day
:01:01. > :01:02.for London's commuters, and as they headed home tonight,
:01:03. > :01:06.a weary indignation. It's been a complete,
:01:07. > :01:10.absolute nightmare today. I should be revising with my
:01:11. > :01:13.daughter, who's taking her mocks. I'm probably not going to get
:01:14. > :01:15.in and have at least I'm not quite sure what their
:01:16. > :01:20.striking about, to be honest. I think us commuters should
:01:21. > :01:22.have a ticket strike instead. I do have sympathy,
:01:23. > :01:27.because I imagine they are striking for something, but I think doing it
:01:28. > :01:30.like five days after everyone gets back to work, they could have timed
:01:31. > :01:33.it a little bit better. This was a day of long queues,
:01:34. > :01:35.delays and disruption. This was Waterloo, as commuters
:01:36. > :01:39.switched to the buses. It is a nightmare, because I'm
:01:40. > :01:42.going to get to work I know what they're after,
:01:43. > :01:52.and it seems to be OK, what they want, but it's wrong
:01:53. > :01:54.affecting people Many didn't know about
:01:55. > :02:03.the strike, and couldn't get We were here at 5:30am
:02:04. > :02:15.and I couldn't get on the 29, You've not been here
:02:16. > :02:26.since five though, have you? No, I've been here
:02:27. > :02:28.since half past five. I've tried to get on three buses
:02:29. > :02:31.this morning so far and I haven't been able to get on yet,
:02:32. > :02:33.it's so busy. At Clapham Junction
:02:34. > :02:35.the station struggled to cope. At one point overcrowding meant it
:02:36. > :02:39.had to be evacuated. To be honest, I don't know
:02:40. > :02:42.why they're striking, but I know it's affected me
:02:43. > :02:44.because I'm late for work. The roads took the brunt,
:02:45. > :02:54.with average speeds dropping to two miles an hour in some areas,
:02:55. > :02:57.as old heritage buses were brought The Thames Clippers
:02:58. > :03:01.on the river did cope well, It's not our fault,
:03:02. > :03:05.we're paying money, OK? Why I'm paying money and have
:03:06. > :03:07.to walk, run, for what? Today was also the start of the exam
:03:08. > :03:11.season, and for some students the strike couldn't have come
:03:12. > :03:13.at a worse time. At Kings, the university
:03:14. > :03:15.says it will offer Most did make it to their exams,
:03:16. > :03:23.but it wasn't straightforward. Clapham Junction station was closed,
:03:24. > :03:26.so we ended up getting a one-hour bus to Shepherd's Bush,
:03:27. > :03:28.and then running from Shepherd's Bush here,
:03:29. > :03:30.which meant we were just in time for the exam, but it
:03:31. > :03:32.was quite stressful. I think it was probably more
:03:33. > :03:35.stressful than the exam itself. And many Londoners
:03:36. > :03:45.took to social media. At Liverpool Street,
:03:46. > :03:47.this was the bus queue. It stretched right
:03:48. > :03:52.around the station. And while many took to two wheels
:03:53. > :03:56.and cycled, the bike hire scheme This dispute goes back
:03:57. > :04:04.to 2015 and the closure of all London Underground ticket
:04:05. > :04:07.offices and the loss of 838 jobs. London Underground now admits more
:04:08. > :04:12.staff are needed on the tube. The sticking point and the reason
:04:13. > :04:24.for this strike is, how many? At King's Cross, more
:04:25. > :04:26.queues for cabs and buses. There were some tube
:04:27. > :04:28.trains, but not many. What are they striking for,
:04:29. > :04:30.was it the 24-hour thing still? It's making it very inconvenient
:04:31. > :04:38.now, but they have to do And tonight the bad news
:04:39. > :04:42.for commuters is this dispute First let's hear from
:04:43. > :04:48.both sides involved - including the Mayor,
:04:49. > :04:50.who during his election campaign said he would roll up his sleeves
:04:51. > :04:53.to make sure there are zero So does he see today
:04:54. > :04:57.as a sign of failure? Here's our political
:04:58. > :05:02.correspondent Karl Mercer. Sadly, not to each other,
:05:03. > :05:07.but fighting a war of The Mayor and Transport for London
:05:08. > :05:12.condemning the strikes. Their only common ground they both
:05:13. > :05:19.claim - a willingness to talk. Yeah, we are absolutely open
:05:20. > :05:22.to talks at any moment in time. We will get back there
:05:23. > :05:24.tomorrow, as soon as We have to resolve
:05:25. > :05:28.these things amicably I would suggest once
:05:29. > :05:31.we get through this we get Are you discussing
:05:32. > :05:39.when you will talk them? Are you discussing
:05:40. > :05:42.when you will talk then? At the moment we have said
:05:43. > :05:45.that we will do this We have made it clear to Acas
:05:46. > :05:54.that we are available for talks and we would expect them to be in
:05:55. > :05:58.contact with Acas in a similar way. Not good news then for Londoners
:05:59. > :06:04.who battled to work today. I think the strike today is
:06:05. > :06:08.completely unnecessary and causing Businesses will lose
:06:09. > :06:11.millions of pounds in to reach their hospital
:06:12. > :06:15.appointments, the strike could have We have to draw the powers that be,
:06:16. > :06:21.the Mayor and his senior that we cannot essentially
:06:22. > :06:25.be pushed away with It's an embarrassment for the Mayor,
:06:26. > :06:29.who said during his election campaign he'd aim for
:06:30. > :06:32.zero days of strikes. Much harder to deliver
:06:33. > :06:34.when you're actually in power. And to put more staff back
:06:35. > :06:36.in stations to help solve the dispute would mean taking money
:06:37. > :06:41.from somewhere else. If as a result of this we must
:06:42. > :06:45.change things within our organisation, to ensure
:06:46. > :06:48.that we provide that right service at the front line,
:06:49. > :06:50.those are the decisions that we will make and
:06:51. > :06:52.that is what we will do. So you are saying there
:06:53. > :06:55.might be extra money, you might have to move
:06:56. > :06:56.the budgets around? I don't think there's extra money,
:06:57. > :06:59.it is about moving the The politics of the strike will be
:07:00. > :07:03.far from the minds of commuters, but it seems they have also put
:07:04. > :07:07.the Mayor at odds with his party. Would you like to see the Labour
:07:08. > :07:11.Party nationally condemn the strike for the damage caused, as you say,
:07:12. > :07:15.to the economy of London? It is for them to talk about what
:07:16. > :07:18.they do nationally. All I can talk about is London
:07:19. > :07:21.and I know that the strike could have been avoided, I know
:07:22. > :07:24.that the strike is unnecessary. The Labour Mayor has described this
:07:25. > :07:28.as unnecessary, the strike. Well, look, I was not in the room
:07:29. > :07:33.when the discussions were But I do know that
:07:34. > :07:36.there's a legitimate beef when over 800 jobs go
:07:37. > :07:39.out of the system. Not quite on the same
:07:40. > :07:41.page it would seem then. The Mayor's immediate focus
:07:42. > :07:43.though will be on getting Let's go back to Tom
:07:44. > :07:50.at Oxford Circus. The strike finished
:07:51. > :08:01.almost five hours ago - There are some services running
:08:02. > :08:06.tonight but not many. Tfl says the Tube will not get back to normal
:08:07. > :08:11.until tomorrow, until first thing tomorrow. If we look at the
:08:12. > :08:16.statistics that Tfl have put out, they say 70% of stations in the end
:08:17. > :08:20.today were open. But I think it's still really a pretty appalling
:08:21. > :08:24.service for commuters. And obviously the worrying thing for passengers is
:08:25. > :08:31.this dispute has still got a long way to go. It's still a long way
:08:32. > :08:36.from being resolved. Tom, is it fair to say this week will test the
:08:37. > :08:40.resilience of Londoners? Yes, and I have been struggling to
:08:41. > :08:47.think of a worse week for commuters. Certainly rail and Tube commuters.
:08:48. > :08:51.Tomorrow there is a drivers' strike again on Southern Railway is and
:08:52. > :08:55.also a strike on Wednesday the 11th and Friday the 13th, another
:08:56. > :09:00.three-day strike later in January. The operator says there will be no
:09:01. > :09:05.service at all on Southern. It is all pretty grim for commuters, I'm
:09:06. > :09:07.afraid. Tom, many thanks, transport correspondent, Tom Edwards.
:09:08. > :09:11.And leave you with Wendy for a look at the weather -
:09:12. > :09:16.which wasn't too kind to commuters today.
:09:17. > :09:24.All we needed was a bit of rain. At least while we went about time it
:09:25. > :09:29.was on the mild side, that is how we start this week. It was 11 degrees,
:09:30. > :09:33.I know it didn't feel it in the rain. It is becoming windy through
:09:34. > :09:38.this week and that will turn it much colder. Here is the rain we had
:09:39. > :09:42.today, it really set in once it got to us and as it shifted through
:09:43. > :09:51.during this evening's rush hour a line of showers went through quite
:09:52. > :09:54.heavy in some clear sky above. We have the moon and stars out and that
:09:55. > :09:59.is how it will stake through tonight. Just a bit of patchy cloud
:10:00. > :10:02.and maybe the odd shower. Mostly dry with the breeze picking up which
:10:03. > :10:05.works in our favour because temperatures will not fall to freeze
:10:06. > :10:10.and although near enough, three or four and maybe as low as one in some
:10:11. > :10:14.rural parts. Either way, a chilly start to the day tomorrow for the
:10:15. > :10:17.next struggle into work. There will be sunshine first thing but the
:10:18. > :10:21.breeze picks up from a westerly direction and it is from that
:10:22. > :10:24.direction cloud will arrive later in the day. Probably bringing one or
:10:25. > :10:28.two outbreaks of rain into the evening rush hour once again but not
:10:29. > :10:32.so much as today. Temperatures will be down on what we had today at
:10:33. > :10:35.around 7-9 but the really cold weather starts to dig in and
:10:36. > :10:39.eventually through Wednesday after this cold front has gone through. We
:10:40. > :10:43.have north-westerly winds and you can see wintry showers across the
:10:44. > :10:47.North of England and Scotland. I think Wednesday will start on the
:10:48. > :10:52.mild side but when the cold front works through and the wind picks up
:10:53. > :10:56.as well it will feel quite bitter by the end of the day. You will more so
:10:57. > :10:59.feel that on Thursday and Friday unfortunately. They will be some
:11:00. > :11:02.sunny crisp weather but any precipitation we get will be of a
:11:03. > :11:05.wintry nation and precipitation we get will be of a
:11:06. > :11:09.wintry nation and Thursday is one we have to watch out for. The weekend
:11:10. > :11:11.outlook, it stays chilly with a northerly wind and possibly frosty
:11:12. > :11:20.nights. The national weather forecast now.
:11:21. > :11:27.Wet and windy weather across the western side of Scotland.
:11:28. > :11:28.Blood-pressure is in charge of the weather, lots of isobars and it