Commuters queue up for taxis outside Waterloo station during the rail strike in London. (Reuters)

London, June 30 (Reuters): Millions of Londoners hiked, biked, or sat in solid traffic today after a strike over pay and working hours crippled the underground rail system.

A 24-hour walkout by thousands of Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members halted trains on much of the 400 km network, known to Londoners as the Tube. The strike by drivers and station staff began yesterday at 1730 GMT, but the worst problems came today.

David McCleod, a 41 year-old chartered building surveyor, said it had taken him two-and-a-half hours to get to work instead of his usual 45 minutes.

“We can handle this sort of thing for one day. Any longer and it will cripple the city,” he said.

Kevin Wallis, a 25-year old trader, had walked to avoid the delays he had suffered in previous strikes. “Last time I had to wait two hours for a bus,” he said. Prime Minister Tony Blair broke his usual silence on industrial disputes to criticise the stoppage.

“Such strikes are unnecessary and should be resolved in proper talks between management and the workforce,” he said through his spokesperson.

Mayor Ken Livingstone has also condemned the action.

Many buses were already full by 5.30 am, with commuters arriving early at the capital’s overground railway terminals to beat the jams.

Others walked to work or dusted off bicycles and pedalled. Those taking to their cars faced “horrendous” traffic jams, said motoring lobby group, the Automobile Association.

Roads were already busy by 6.30 am, an hour earlier than usual, with key routes in and around the capital still jammed by mid-morning.

The underground network, which usually carries three million people a day, was reduced to a skeleton service.

Operator Transport for London said an extra 1,000 buses were running in the city on top of the usual 7,000. “The service is very busy but coping well,” a spokesperson said.

The dispute is the first capital-wide stoppage on the underground rail network since October 2002. Mayor Livingstone, a Left-wing politician who supported the 2002 strike, condemned today’s stoppage.

He said a pay offer worth 6.75 per cent over two years together with a cut in working hours to 35 a week was “incredibly generous”. The union, which walked out of last-minute talks to avert the strike on Monday, say the offer leaves 800 jobs at risk.

Strikers outside a Tube station in Leytonstone, east London, unfurled a banner which read: “Eleventh commandment — thou shalt not cross a picket line”, following controversial comments by Livingstone that he would have gone to work today if he had been in the RMT.