Furious commuter caught up in rail strike chaos confronts London bus driver

[Video from Twitter/@zimokapino]

A furious commuter desperate to get to work during the rail strike confronted a London bus driver in the middle of a busy road during Tuesday's rush hour.

Traffic ground to a halt as the exasperated man blocked the Lordship Lane to Ilford service and begged the driver to let him on.

A queue of people caught up in the strike chaos watched the drama unfold after a string of buses went past without stopping.

Video posted online shows the man standing in front of the 123 bus service shouting directly at the driver to "open door" while waving his arms and exclaiming "it's not your bus!"

The person who filmed the video said he had been waiting for a bus since 6:30am but had gone nowhere for over an hour.

He described the situation as a "mess" but said rail workers had the right to strike.

The rail strike caused long queues on many main roads as people switched from trains to cars and buses.

Location technology firm TomTom said congestion levels at 11am were higher than at the same time last week in London, from 38% on June 14 to 51% today.

There were also long queues on outer London sections of the M1, M4, A4 and A40.

AA president Edmund King said there were also “traffic hotspots” on the M25 in the South East.

Footfall in central London was 27% down on last Tuesday as retailers said the industrial action was a “blow” on top of rising costs and staff shortages.

'People clearly working from home'

In contrast, footfall in outer London and market towns was less affected, down 6.2% and 2% respectively, reflecting increasing numbers of people working from home, it said.

Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “The impact of train and tube strikes today on footfall is very clear to see, with a large proportion of people clearly working from home.

“The drop in footfall in central London and regional cities means that the gap from the 2019 footfall level has widened considerably – to -49.2% and -29.8%, which are levels that are equivalent to those recorded during lockdown.

“In contrast in market towns the gap from the 2019 footfall level has narrowed to just -2.5% below 2019 and -13.4% in Outer London.”

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