London Victoria station lays empty as commuters search for ways around rail strike

By Jacob Phillips, Local Democracy Reporter

London’s biggest train stations lay empty as commuters faced longer journeys to tackle the biggest rail strikes for 30 years on Tuesday morning.

Some Londoners were forced to take three buses to get to work when they passed through an almost empty London Victoria railway station.

Trains at the station were running irregularly, while some buses took half an hour to arrive and many were crammed with people trying to get to work.

Razia Hussain said: “Normally I leave for work at 9am but I had to leave at 7.30am this morning. I had to walk from Pimlico to here because all the buses are saying ‘no service’. It’s annoying. I don’t see the point of it. You are disrupting a lot of people.”

Sepher Ara said: “It’s taken me two-and-a-half hours just to reach here. I came from West Croydon.” But she added: “I do support (the strikes) with the cost of living but it’s happening to all of us.”

Sepher was on her way to Edgware Road and expected her journey to take about hour-and-a-half due to traffic. 

Picture: Victoria railway station lays empty on Tuesday’s strike day (Picture: Jacob Phillips)