TfL Tube strikes in July and August 2015 cost Londoners £168m in lost man hours and the hardest hit lines for travel delays were the District and Hammersmith & City
The Tube strikes that paralysed the London Underground this summer cost us £168m in lost man-hours.
London came to a standstill on 8 July, and again on 5 and 6 August, as Transport for London (TfL) clashed with unions over the introduction of the Night Tube.
Now, we know you don’t need us to tell you that the strikes made commuting more of a headache than it normally is, but figures released by TfL today put some weight behind just how much time we lost – and how much it cost us.
The time Londoners “lost” because of travel disruptions more than tripled against their 2015 average in July and August, based on TfL's statistics on lost customer hours.
To find out how much money that cost us, Morning Wire has crunched the numbers based on the average full-time earnings Londoners takes home every week, which come to £660.50.
The August strikes alone cost us £86.5m. In July, we lost £81m in man-hours.
Read more: The Night Tube is essential if London is to keep its global status
TfL also released data on which lines were hit hardest by delays over the period. This shows the entire network fell far short of its target of operating 98.2 per cent of km travelled on time.
The District and Hammersmith & City lines were hit particularly hard during the time period, with only 89 and 88 per cent of trains arriving on time, respectively.
This means delays on the lines were around nine per cent worse than expected. According to TfL, this is not just because of the strike action, but also because of an overtime ban by maintenance staff that hit against the lines.
If you travel on the Victoria line, by contrast, you’re in luck. The line escaped the strike relatively unscathed, with just over four per cent more delays than it should have had.