Train strikes, Tube fare cuts & London’s £8bn ‘lungs’: The Standard podcast

More strikes on horizon & value of capital’s green spaces
Strike
Thousands of commuters battled to work this morning on reduced services
Jeremy Selwyn

Thousands of commuters defied union attempts to shut down key routes into London - but there was little sign of an end to the rail strikes.

Train drivers in the Aslef union walked out at South Western Railway, Southern and Thameslink in the latest stage of a 20-month pay rise saga.

Evening Standard transport editor Ross Lydall joins us in the studio and has the latest from Waterloo, where he’s been interviewing Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan on the picket line.

It comes as the RMT union said hundreds of members voted for two further 24-hour walkouts on the Overground line, next month and again in March.

Ross reports there was a steady flow of passengers arriving in Tuesday morning’s rush hour after South Western Railway was able to run a limited service from towns including Woking, Feltham and Basingstoke.

However, the reduced journeys into London were a far cry from the “minimum service” many hoped might operate after the government enacted new laws to require up to 40 per cent of trains to run on strike days.

Further industrial action is due to hit C2C, Greater Anglia and LNER services on Friday, Avanti West Coast on Saturday and Chiltern and GWR on Monday.

Plus, we have more on Mayor Sadiq Khan’s £147 million pre-election tube fare sweeteners.

In part two of The Standard podcast, escape the polluted centre for London’s glorious green spaces - which have been valued at £8 billion by the City of London Corporation.

But how safe are the likes of Hampstead Heath and Epping Forrest from government planning reforms?

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