WALKOUTS by members of four unions have closed London Underground today, and Transport for London said 'major disruption' was inevitable.
Members of the RMT on First Great Western are also on strike today, which means that intercity and commuter services to Paddington have been badly hit as well.
Members of the RMT, ASLEF, TSSA and Unite are protesting at plans to bring in all-night services on several Underground lines on Fridays and Saturdays from September, while the Great Western dispute centres around the introduction of Intercity Express trains, which the RMT fears could endanger jobs.
Many Londoners have struggled to work on crowded buses, although normal services are running on London Overground as well as the Docklands Light Railway and tram routes. Transport for London is running an extra 200 buses to boost capacity in central London.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the response from his members had been 'rock solid'.
However, a threat to Scottish train services has been lifted, after ScotRail announced that it had reached agreement over Sunday rosters. ScotRail Alliance managing director Phil Verster said: "I am pleased to confirm we have agreed a deal that will ensure we can run our existing services on a Sunday and help us develop plans to make Sunday part of the working week.
"We run a seven day railway, so it is hugely important that we have staff rosters that can cover this. The commitment from the unions to work with us to change the way we roster Sundays will allow us to recruit new drivers and will, ultimately, deliver a much improved service for our customers.
"We are now contacting drivers to seek to their cooperation to reinstate services from Sunday 12 July. I am hopeful that, with their support, we will be able to run a near-normal service. We will know more later today and would urge customers to check our website for updates."
A separate dispute affecting Northern Rail has been followed by the cancellation of a strike in the Manchester area, after Northern threatened to challenge the legality of a walkout by members of the RMT.