Strike to disrupt trams during Wimbledon tennis fortnight

The long-lingering industrial dispute between tram engineers and Transport for London over “a massive pay disparity” remains unresolved and looks set to enter a new phase later this week with more strike action coming down the track, starting from late on Sunday night. The disruption is likely to affect many tennis fans who might have otherwise travelled to Wimbledon by tram.

All change: there will be disruption to the tram service to Wimbledon throughout the fortnight of the tennis championships

TfL is also conducting some more of its “essential maintenance work” over the next three weeks, which will add further disruption to passengers’ journeys.

Strike action previously took place in May, after which the lack of routine maintenance work to the network’s ageing rolling stock saw two-thirds of the trams sidelined for safety reasons. Yet despite almost two months passing since the previous engineers’ strike, no resolution to the dispute has been found.

Unite the union has called the tram strike because of a pay disparity between engineers working on trams and their colleagues doing similar work on TfL’s Tube trains.

Around 60 tram, stores and infrastructure engineers are angry that their colleagues on the London Underground, who require the same qualifications and perform the same roles, are paid up to £10,000 more a year.

The first of two strikes begins on July 1 and will last a whole week. TfL is advising tram passengers to complete their tram journeys by 8pm on Sunday June 30. Services will not return to normal until Monday July 8.

There is then to be a further strike, with no services on Friday July 12 until Monday, July 15 – potentially causing additional travel chaos around the Wimbledon tram terminus on the finals weekend of the All-England tennis championships.

Between Monday July 1 and Friday July 5, and between Friday July 12 and Sunday July 14:

• No service is expected before 7am or after 6pm on the London Trams network

• Between 7am and 6pm services will only operate between:
  Wimbledon and Reeves Corner
  East Croydon and Beckenham Junction and New Addington
  There will be no service through Croydon town centre, or to or from Elmers End on these days

On Saturday 6 and Sunday July 7:

No service expected before 7am or after 6pm on the entire London Trams network

Between 7am and 6pm, services will only run between Wimbledon and Reeves Corner due to planned maintenance work on the rest of the Trams network

On Monday July 8 and Monday July 15:

Services are expected to start later than normal, with possible disruption throughout the day

From Tuesday July 9 to Thursday July 11:

Services will run as normal but some service disruption is possible.

TfL’s advice, as ever, is: “Plan ahead, allow more time for your journey and check before you travel.”

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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