While we are loath to downplay the importance of a transport story, coverage of this week’s Tube strike has bordered on the histrionic. The Telegraph online even had a live count down to the closure of services like it were the start of some new era.
Predictable battle lines were drawn across the newspapers. The Independent ran a column by a Tube driver entitled: ‘Against the Tube strike? Then try spending 15 years as a train driver like I have.’
The crux of the argument being that the hours have become less social, breaks shorter and weekends are about to become ‘almost non-existent’.
The Telegraph and The Times took a much less sympathetic view of events, with a Times leader stating that it would be ‘hard to conceive of a less justifiable strike’.
Those who focus only on the disruption and the money involved might agree. A newly qualified Tube driver gets paid £49,673 a year and the deal rejected by the unions would see that starting salary raised above £50,000.
However the unions say the dispute has always been about drivers' hours and work/life balance. Participating union Aslef said it was unconvinced by ‘vague phrases’ like "we will seek to mitigate" and "will explore", when it come to protecting workers' hours.
On the other hand Transport for London said it had provided such assurances on work-life balance ‘with amended rosters and the new staff already hired for Night Tube, which will give drivers the same number of weekends off as they receive now’.
Back and forth the argument goes. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the new offer did ‘nothing to tackle the core issue which revolves around staff being at the beck and call of management to be hauled in during their free time to try and plug the staffing gaps’.
Both sides have so far stuck to their guns, with no sign of an end to the dispute.
Whichever side you agree with, The Times was right to take Mr Cash to task for dismissing those who might use the planned weekend Night Tube as being nothing more than ‘a few thousand revellers’.
London is a city of close to 9 million people. The idea that only a few thousand of them would ever need to catch a Tube late at night is demonstrably untrue. For a start those working night shifts may well be overjoyed at the thought of a quicker, not to mention warmer, ride into work.
While Aslef has called for a postponement of the Night Tube plans, RMT is now calling for their ‘immediate and indefinite suspension’.
While there may be issues surrounding the 12 September deadline, 24-hour Tube services, which run in other cities in Europe and in New York, should not be beyond the wit of the UK. In the long run they will surely make our capital safer and more productive.
The importance of transport is demonstrated by the fact that rail union bosses have a powerful hand to play, but they must not be tempted into overplaying it.
There is nothing wrong with trying to secure a fair deal for workers, striking to stop the Night Tube services in principle is a different matter.
