Tube strike 2017: Commuters braced for rush hour chaos amid Central Line Tube strike

Commuters were facing disruption to their journeys in to work this morning as Tube drivers staged a 24-hour strike on two London Underground lines.

Members of the RMT and Aslef unions walked out at 9pm on Tuesday in a row over the “forced” transfer of eight drivers to different depots.

The Waterloo and City line has been shut down completely and no Central line services are running east of Leytonstone.

Passengers queued for replacement buses outside the station on Wednesday warning as LU issued a warning to expect “severe disruption” and possible queues outside busy stations at rush hour.

Anyone travelling to or from Leytonstone is advised that buses from this station will be extremely busy.

Tranport for London urged passengers to take a bus from Stratford or Leyton instead.

Those wishing to use Ilford station could take the bus to Barking and use the District or Hammersmith & City lines.

As drivers walked out Transport for London urged RMT to enter further crisis talks to resolve the issue.

Peter McNaught, Operations Director for the Central line, said: “I apologise to customers for the disruption that this unnecessary strike is causing.

“We have made all reasonable efforts to resolve this dispute through talking through the issues with the unions, and we have minimised the number of employees affected from over 30 to eight.

“All of these moves are within the long-standing agreements we have made with the unions.

"We call on the RMT to honour this long-standing agreement ‎and join us for more talks to resolve this issue.”

Mick Cash, RMT general secretary, said: "RMT negotiators have made strenuous efforts through the Acas machinery to resolve this dispute but the door has been slammed in our faces.

"To up the ante, LU have now written to us confirming that they will be bulldozing through the displacements regardless.

"If LU are allowed to get away with this move on the Central Line they will start shunting drivers around at the drop of a hat regardless of the consequences.

"Our members will be sent out from pillar to post to plug gaps that are solely down to staffing shortages.

"With massive budget cuts in the pipeline at LU this is a straw in the wind as to how the company expects to operate in the future."

Normal service is expected to resume on Thursday morning.