Tube drivers striking ‘because they cannot buy in London on £72k salary’

36 comments

1. ***The Telegraph reports:***

   [Tube drivers are striking](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/09/09/tube-strikes-dates-and-lines-london-underground-tfl/) because they cannot buy a house in London on their £72,000 salary, a rail union boss has claimed.

   Tube strikes that have brought London to a standstill [entered their third day](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/08/tube-strike-driverless-trains-solution-automation-dlr/) on Wednesday as RMT members demand a four-day, 32-hour working week.

   Eddie Dempsey, the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, said the pay of Transport for London (TfL) workers is not “out of this world” because of house prices in the capital.

   Asked if he did not think that a £72,000 worker was well-paid, he told Times Radio: “Well you can’t afford to buy a house in London, even on £72,000.”

   Asked again, Mr Dempsey said: “I think workers should be able to afford to live in London. And if the average house price, if you’ve got to be earning more than £100,000 to buy a house in London, £72,000 is not out of this world.”

   He later admitted that the salary was a “good wage”, but added: “It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be asking for improvements in wages in terms of conditions.”

   The [average salary in the capital](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/09/london-suffers-deepest-fall-in-wages/) is £65,994, according to official data from 2024. In the South East, it falls to £46,006. 

   The union is also demanding that workers are given a 75 per cent discount of all mainline train tickets outside of London with a Rail Staff Leisure Card, The Telegraph previously revealed.

   **Read more:** [**https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/10/tube-drivers-striking-because-cannot-buy-london-72k-salary/**](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/10/tube-drivers-striking-because-cannot-buy-london-72k-salary/)

2. Why is anyone shocked that a highly unionised trade is doing union things?

3. Unions are just cunts at this stage. Lining their own pockets.

4. So he thinks tube drivers should earn more than £100k? and the station staff? Cleaners? Shop workers? Should the minimum wage be £100k in London? and the general taxpayer should pick up the tab for that should they? Insane.

   If only they could have heavily subsidized access to some sort of transport system that lets you get outside the M25 easily

5. The head of that union is pro-Brexit and anti-Ukraine. Make of that what you will.

   Personally I think he’s a four letter word

6. £72k for a four-day, 32-hour working week!

   Damn, need a time machine and go back and change career path.

   And I used to love Scalextric as a kid too.

7. Don’t they get free train usage?

8. Divide and conker….

9. Aren’t tube drivers mainly with ASLEF, this is more about the other workes, on nowhere close to 70k?

10. This salary should have been a standard for London given the high costs of living

11. Lazy shirkers. I guess a 5 day week interferes with their PlayStation routine.

12. Greedy Brexit backing, anti Ukraine union with connections to Russia, screws over the working person, again.

13. Many people are on below 30k and can’t buy it either. Can’t even get to work on time on days like this and transport already costs fortune

14. People who earn less and have FAAAAR less benefits of being part of the Train Union manage to get on the housing ladder.

15. I mean they’re not wrong. House pricing is not the trade unions fault.

16. It’s not the tube drivers that are striking. This is mis reported widely across UK right wing press. You can find the details of who is striking here. [https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-will-launch-rolling-strike-action-over-pay-conditions-and/](https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-will-launch-rolling-strike-action-over-pay-conditions-and/)

17. Time for fully automated trains.

18. Maybe everyone who works in london whether it be supermarkets, coffee shops should strike and get what they need to to afford to buy in london.

19. I’m just surprised the tube system isn’t automated already.

20. I thought ‘politics of envy’ was meant to be what the lefties amongst us are into?

21. I wouldn’t ask why train drivers would demand this much. Ask why aren’t others also demanding more?

    No one is paid enough, train drivers are among the few demanding more pay. If your industry can afford to pay you more, it should.

22. They are striking because they know it works and they’ll get things out of it.

    It’s nothing to do with fairness, but with power.

    They also know that they have very little public support and they won’t be able to avoid automation for many more years, so they have to get as much as they can.

23. Driving trains sounds like an ideal job for AI.

24. Except tube drivers aren’t striking, the RMT union is striking, most drivers are with ASLEF. Utter gutter trash paper.

25. It’s amazing how many people in these threads immediately go after the drivers for being paid too much.

    And completely gloss over the thought that maybe they aren’t being paid enough.

26. I’ve never understood why rail operating companies submit to train drivers trade unions. Theres no shortage of applicants willing to do the job. I’d happily be a tube driver for £60k.

27. Oh looky here, a right-wing rag pitting the lower classes against each other and they’re lapping it up. Same shit everywhere.

28. Its not drivers who are striking… this post is fake. all other employess are striking, cuz they get 30-40k.

29. I just found out they get final salary pension too! Greedy bastards.

30. Here’s a radical idea, but stay with me on it. Everyone who works full time should have a right to their own secure home within the same city they work in at a rate that is affordable to their income. If the market cannot provide it, which if 75k cannot buy a home obviously 30k can’t, then the state needs to provide it

31. So many crabs-in-a-bucket in these comments, sweet jebus.

    No wonder Ol’ Blighty is regarded internationally as a low-pay country.

32. What about the people who work full time who earn under £72k/yr and also can’t afford to buy in London. Why are they entitled to buy in London just because they work there. Not everyone else gets that luxury.

    There are plenty of intelligent ambitious unemployed people who would love this job on that huge salary. I say offer them free training and get them working.

33. Majority of drivers aren’t on strike, also the drivers are looking for a reduction of work week and below inflation pay raise…the majority of staff on strike are signallers and other non driver positions

34. To all the people mocking them for wanting an actual salary that we should all be on…
    Why do you hate the working class actually having a job that makes money.
    Teachers, doctors, nurses etc… All of them should be paid more.
    You know it might help our economy if people actually had money to spend rather than CEOs etc moving it offshor through tax loopholes or buying multiple properties…

35. I don’t live in London, I live in Bristol. But surely it doesn’t matter how much you are earning if you can’t afford anywhere to rent or live ?

    I can tell you for one that people born and living in Bristol have been working whilst the housing market disappears off into the distance. Average rent is far too high and there’s really not enough to be purchased or rented.

    Most new builds are bought buy private investment companies, or landlords who already own 2 or more houses.

    We’ve slowly been priced out of the city we were born into, no wonder so many are leaving to find cheaper more affordable housing in other counties.

    Is this the same for Londoners ?

36. This is an absolutely unhinged strike. These people should be ashamed of themselves.

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