{"id":17839,"date":"2026-04-20T12:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17839\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:21:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:21:13","slug":"london-tube-strikes-april-2026-dates-disruption-and-travel-advice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/17839\/","title":{"rendered":"London Tube strikes April 2026: Dates, disruption and travel advice"},"content":{"rendered":"

London is set to face two days of Tube strikes<\/a> and four days of travel disruption this month.<\/p>\n

Passengers are being warned to check routes before travelling, with London Underground drivers expected to walk out over proposed changes to their working schedule.<\/p>\n

Members of the Rail, Maritime, and Tube union (RMT) are planning two 24 hour strikes starting midday Tuesday 21 April, and midday Thursday 23 April.<\/p>\n

Disruption is expected to continue on the afternoons and evenings after the strikes end.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

Transport for London (TfL)<\/a> said the Elizabeth Line, DLR, London Overground, trams and most bus routes will be running as normal but are expected to be very busy.<\/p>\n

On Friday 24 April a bus strike will affect a few routes in east London.<\/p>\n

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey<\/a> said: \u201cWe have approached negotiations with TfL in good faith throughout this entire process, but despite our best efforts, TfL seems unwilling to make any concessions in a bid to avert strike action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is extremely disappointing and has baffled our negotiators. The approach of TfL is not one which leads to industrial peace and will infuriate our members who want to see a negotiated settlement to this avoidable dispute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s everything you need to know.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,The strikes are set to take place on Tuesday 21 April and Thursday 23 April (Photo: Rasid Necati Aslim\/Anadolu)<\/p>\n

When are the strikes?<\/p>\n

As it stands, members will walk out on Tuesday 21 April, from 12pm to 12pm the following day. They will wak out again for 24 hours from 12pm on Thursday 23 April.<\/p>\n

It means the first strike will last from Tuesday into Wednesday, and the second from Thursday into Friday.<\/p>\n

Tuesday and Thursday<\/p>\n

Until mid-morning: normal services;\u00a0<\/p>\n

Late morning: services wind down ahead of strike;<\/p>\n

After midday: significant disruption on all lines, continuing through the following day;<\/p>\n

Tube services that do run will finish early \u2013 commuters should aim to have completed journeys by 8pm.<\/p>\n

Wednesday and Friday<\/p>\n

Tube services that do run will start later than normal, with no service expected before 7:30pm;<\/p>\n

Morning: significant disruption on all lines until midday;<\/p>\n

Afternoon\/evening: services recovering, with some disruption likely until the evening.<\/p>\n

What Tube lines are affected?<\/p>\n

The strikes will affect the entire Tube network<\/a>. A reduced service will run across most lines but significant disruption is expected. Any services that do run will be less frequent, very busy and you may not be able to board the first train.<\/p>\n

No service is expected on the Piccadilly and Circle lines.<\/p>\n

No service is expected on the Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate.<\/p>\n

There is no service anticipated on the Central line between White City and Liverpool Street.<\/p>\n

Passengers are advised to check travel before each journey.<\/p>\n

Will there be more strikes?<\/p>\n

If the dispute is not resolved, strikes are expected on Tuesday 19 May to Wednesday 20 May, and Thursday 21 to Friday 22 May.<\/p>\n

Further action is scheduled to take place from Tuesday 16\u00a0June to Wednesday 17\u00a0June, and Thursday 18\u00a0June to Friday 19\u00a0June 19 June.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,RMT members are striking over proposed changes to their working schedule (Photo: Vuk Valcic\/SOPA\/LightRocket)<\/p>\n

Why are the strikes happening?<\/p>\n

RMT members<\/a> are striking ahead of proposed changes to their working schedule. They oppose current plans to introduce a condensed four-day working week.<\/p>\n

TFL bosses want to change the current 36-hour pattern spread over five days to drivers working 35 hours over four days, with one less paid lunch break.<\/p>\n

The RMT is pushing for this to be reduced to 32 hours across four days, with general secretary Eddie Dempsey stating that longer shifts could lead to driver fatigue, putting passengers at risk.<\/p>\n

Union leaders also worry the changes might allow management to extend maximum driving time, make drivers start earlier or finish later, change shifts with as little as one day\u2019s notice, and reduce flexibility for drivers who want to transfer between depots.<\/p>\n

Eddie Dempsey said the union had \u201cserious concerns around fatigue, safety and work-life balance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Could the strikes be called off? <\/p>\n

Historically, Tube strikes are often called off with very little notice \u2013 sometimes less than 18 hours before the first picket lines form.<\/p>\n

In January 2024, strike plans were scrapped on a Sunday afternoon at around 5pm, for action that was due to begin that same evening and the next morning.<\/p>\n

Last month, strikes were scheduled for March 24 to 29, but they were called off six days before that after a breakthrough in talks.<\/p>\n

However, even if a strike is called off the night before, disruption often still occurs.<\/p>\n

For this month\u2019s strikes, reports last week indicated that \u201cno formal peace talks\u201d were scheduled between TfL and the RMT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London is set to face two days of Tube strikes and four days of travel disruption this month.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[8237,27,1044,3801,1457,285,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-17839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-commuting","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-london-underground","11":"tag-strikes","12":"tag-tfl","13":"tag-transport","14":"tag-unions"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116437010474155320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}