Tram strikes could continue 'well into the summer' causing commuter chaos

A union has warned of further strike action and claimed that issues with London's tram network could persist until 'well into the summer' after members walked out earlier this month. Around 60 tram, stores and infrastructure engineers, who are members of Unite, took five days of strike action from Sunday (5 May).

Officials say this is because their colleagues on the London Underground are 'paid up to £10,000 more a year.' Since the strike action ended, Unite says Tramlink services have been 'severely impacted and will likely not resume normal service until well into the summer' because of wheel damage to stock.

The union has also warned that this would get 'significantly worse' if Transport for London (TfL) 'does not engage in good faith negotiations with Unite to resolve the pay disparities'.

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Unite said in a statement: "The workers perform key safety critical maintenance and repairs. Tramlink suffers major engineer recruitment and retention problems due to the highly skilled staff preferring to work on the London Underground because the pay is better.

"Further strike action will be scheduled if the dispute is not resolved." Navid Golshan, General Manager for London Trams, urged Unite to 'work with us to find a resolution' before members walked out.

Trams being fixed 'as quickly as possible'

TfL told MyLondon earlier this week that engineers are working to fix trams 'as quickly as possible' after debris on the track damaged wheels on several services. Passengers have been experiencing 'minor delays' on parts of the network, while a section has also been closed.

Locals have been urged to check before they travel and special London bus services have been set up. MyLondon understands that services have been affected by the issue since around May 4.

Navid Golshan, TfL’s General Manager for London Trams, said: "We apologise that customers are still experiencing minor delays on the London Trams network following several trams suffering damaged wheels due to debris in a section of track. Our maintenance teams have been working hard to get trams back into service as quickly as possible and we appreciate customers' patience while we do this."

Today (Saturday, May 18), TfL says that there is no service between Arena and Elmers end 'due to a shortage of trams'. But, bosses say there is a 'good service on all other routes'.

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