Paco Anselmi Paco Anselmi

LONDONERS ARE GRAPPLING with strikes by tube and rail staff – and you can imagine what sort of impact it is having on the home of around eight million people.

Whoops!

We couldn't find this Tweet

The 24-hour London underground strike began last night over a pay deal on night-time services.

A 48-hour strike is also being undertaken by First Great Western staff over proposals to introduce a new fleet of Super Express Trains from 2017.

The managing director of First Great Western has written an open letter to staff over their concerns.

We had hoped this would be enough to avoid strike action, but unfortunately, the RMT did not endorse these proposals, so it is likely that strike action will affect our services from this evening to early Saturday this week. We will be running as many of our trains as we can, but your journey may be affected.

The rail strike affects people in Wales and England, but there are some services still running.

Stefan Rousseau Stefan Rousseau

Transport for London said:

Extra bus and river services will run to help Londoners get around and roadworks will be suspended wherever possible but all public transport and roads will be much busier than usual. Allow more time for your journey.

 London Overground, DLR, TfL Rail and trams will all operate a normal service but all public transport and roads will be much busier than usual. Allow more time for your journey.

To help them, there will be travel ambassadors and volunteers handing out maps at transport hubs in central London.

Commuters are being advised to travel outside peak hours if they can.

So how is this affecting people?

A look at Twitter shows that some were not happy:

Whoops!

We couldn't find this Tweet

The service by those who were providing transport didn’t go unnoticed:

Making a difference

A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can make sure we can keep reliable, meaningful news open to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

Support us Learn More

For others, though, there were some perks:

Whoops!

We couldn't find this Tweet

But an important point was made that for wheelchair users, every day can feel like a strike day on the tube:

Read: Britain is limiting child tax credits to just two children per family>