THE GRIDLOCKS & THE GHOST TOWNS
Flashback to lockdown as city centres stand empty (despite the crush-hour!)
Britain’s busiest stations, shopping streets and city centres were all but deserted yesterday – as furious commuters faced huge queues for buses and gridlock on the roads.
In London, the platforms of Euston, Kings Cross and Waterloo were eerily quiet, as were those at Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham new street.
In scenes that recalled the early days of the pandemic, many workers chose to stay at home as 80 per cent of trains were cancelled during the worst strike in 30 years.
But those who braved the long commute faced hours-long queues for buses, only to be ‘packed like sardines’ on to them in sweltering 26C (79F) heat in London.
Passengers waiting for trains collapsed in tears as skeleton services were changed or cancelled at the last minute – while the tube strike added to the chaos in the capital, with tomtom data showing congestion on the roads up by a third.
One commuter was filmed standing in front of a packed bus in tottenham, north London, after it refused to stop for dozens who had been queuing for over an hour. Healthcare support worker David raposo Buzon, 34, filmed the man who refused to move and wrote: ‘My patients and co-workers [are] still waiting for me because of the rail strikes.’ He said his salary ‘is totally worse than the ones that are striking’ and he was 90 minutes late to work.
tej Kahlon, 42, an optometrist, said the walkout had forced her London practice to cancel early appointments.
‘it’s had a massive impact on the business that’s already struggling since the lockdown,’ she said. Mrs Kahlon said the strikes were ‘really unfair’, adding wryly: ‘My husband is a dentist and he’s considering retraining as a train driver because the wages are so good.’ there were huge queues at Heathrow with the M4 gridlocked, while traffic was up by a third in Manchester.
In Manchester, sheila Ferguson, 52, was trying to get a train to Glasgow. taking aim at the strikers, she said: ‘Everyone wants more pay but if weall went on strike the country would grind to a halt.’ Further north, sandra Martin, who is visiting the UK from California, was forced to wait for a seven-hour bus from sunderland to London after her three-hour train was cancelled.
Much of scotland and Wales were cut off. retired NHS worker Christopher
Britton had just finished a tour of scotland’s islands and decided to try to get a cab to London from Glasgow. But he laughed and hung up the phone when the taxi firm quoted him £1,500.