Fury as striking Tube drivers demand FREE Legoland tickets as London grinds to halt

Outrageous demands by striking Tube drivers include two-for-one entry to theme parks including Legoland - as their industrial action brings London to its knees, The Telegraph has reported.

Industrial chaos by the RMT trade union has paralysed the capital, with all but three Underground lines suspended on Monday in a devastating blow to commuters.

Yet the union's shameless list of demands includes access to a travel card which also gives its holders cut-price ticket deals at Legoland, Thorpe Park and Chessington World of Adventures. Also included are guided tours of Buckingham Palace and a drag-themed night out in Soho. The report emerges as Sadiq Khan ‘goes missing’ as strike action brings London to a standstill.

Keith Prince, the Conservatives' transport spokesman at City Hall, slammed the union's demands as a "joke" and said ordinary Londoners would not support the ongoing walkouts.

"The RMT has brought the capital to its knees to demand discounted theme park tickets and an extra day off a week," he fumed.

"It's a joke – Londoners work hard for the things they want and if the RMT thinks they're going to hold the city to ransom for a go on the rollercoasters then they'll find out very quickly how little Londoners support them to do so.

"This crisis cannot go on – where is the Mayor, and where is his leadership at this crucial time for our city?"

Eddie Dempsey, the general secretary of the RMT, previously said there are "outstanding issues around staff travel arrangements" between his union and Tube bosses, causing "an atmosphere of distrust … where our members feel like no one is listening to them".

RMT members striking this week are demanding, among other things, that Tube bosses grant them access to the so-called Priv staff travel discount card.

Formally known as the Rail Staff Leisure Card, the Priv card gives a whopping 75 per cent off all mainline train tickets outside London. It also grants holders two-for-one entry to a substantial list of tourist attractions around the country.

The terms and conditions for the Priv card say: "To redeem your offer, visit the Days Out Guide website, select and book your offer and on arrival simply present your Staff Travel Card, Rail Staff Leisure Card or RST Online Leisure Card; this will cover your entry and that of one guest."

Participating theme parks also include Cadbury World and the London Eye.

"All public offers are also available to holders of staff travel facilities," the terms and conditions say.

Those public offers, available on the Days Out Guide website run by National Rail, include: the Camden Pub Crawl; an interactive Pac Man-themed event in Manchester; and an event titled "Ultimate Drag Queen Disco Tour: A Fabulous Adventure in London!"

A union source told the Telegraph: "Travel concessions are varied on London Underground. And trips to Legoland don't form part of any negotiation.

"But if Legoland needs help with constructing their Lego Tube station display, we will put the call out to our members."

The RMT's main demands include a reduction in working time to a four-day, 32-hour working week and for alterations to shift patterns to help reduce fatigue caused by "extreme shift rotations".

Taxpayers subsidised mainline passenger trains by a staggering £12.5 billion last year, or roughly £57,000 for each of the 220,000 people estimated to work in the wider rail sector.

This means every one of the country's 28.6 million households paid £437 towards mainline railways and perks for staff working on them. This was a decrease on 2023's figure of exactly £440, although that is because there was an increase of 200,000 households over that period.

Transport for London (TfL) stopped publishing regular Tube punctuality data in 2020 during the Covid pandemic and has not restarted doing so.

Annual data shows that 90.9 per cent of planned Tube services operated last year, meaning 9.1 per cent of scheduled trains did not run. This is down from 92.7 per cent of services operating in the 2019-20 financial year.

On Monday, Downing Street called on the RMT union and TfL to get back to the negotiating table to end the strike.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman told The Telegraph: "I think Londoners will rightly be fed-up with the disruption from Tube strikes this morning – as parents try and drop their kids off at school, get to hospital appointments, get to work – and RMT and TfL need to get back around the table, work together to resolve this dispute in the interests of passengers."

The Government's Employment Rights Bill could reduce barriers to strike action but No 10 insisted this was because it wanted a more constructive relationship with unions, rather than the "scorched earth" approach under the Tories.