Bus strikes: eight more dates to 20 October, all school days

Arriva London North drivers went back on strike at 4am today, and the walkout now has a calendar attached to it. There are eight further strike dates after this week, running to 20 October, and every single one of them is a school day.

Unite members rejected the company’s offer on the hot weather dispute, the union said on Sunday. Action had been paused from 19 to 21 August while more than 1,500 drivers were balloted on it. They decided it “did not go far enough”.

This week’s stoppage runs from 4am on Tuesday 25 August to 4.30am on Friday 28 August. Transport for London expects little or no service on 43 routes.

The eight dates after this week

Read the strike windows carefully. Each one starts at 4am and ends at 4.30am the next day, so a “4 to 5 September” window is really one day without buses, the Friday. On that reading, here is what is left:

Two things follow from that table.

The first is the pattern. Every remaining date is a Friday or a Monday. None falls on a weekend, and none falls in the school holidays. Haringey’s autumn term runs from Wednesday 2 September to Friday 23 October, with half term from 26 to 30 October, according to the council’s own term dates. The last strike date, 19 October, is four days before term ends. Every one of the eight lands inside it.

The second is the school run. The first week of term takes two of them, the Friday and the following Monday. Families who use the 41, the W3 or the 102 to get to school will hit a strike on the third day of the year.

Which local routes are on TfL’s list

TfL’s list of affected routes runs to 43 services. Most of them are nowhere near here. The ones that are:

• 41 and N41. Crouch End Broadway, Hornsey Station, Tottenham Lane, Turnpike Lane, Wood Green High Road and Archway. This is the route that matters most in Crouch End.
• W3. Hornsey, Middle Lane, Weston Park, Mount View Road, Alexandra Palace and Wood Green. It does not serve Crouch End Broadway.
• 102. Muswell Hill, Muswell Hill Road, Colney Hatch Lane, Fortis Green and Bounds Green.
• 29, N29, 121, 141, 221, 329, W4 and 217. Wood Green and Turnpike Lane, where the effect is worst.
• 67, 76, 149, 243, 279, 341, 349 and N279. Harringay Green Lanes, Manor House, Seven Sisters, Bruce Grove and Tottenham.
• 19 and N19. Finsbury Park, which is where the W7 drops you.

What is not on the list matters just as much. The 91, N91, W5 and W7 are all running, which leaves Crouch End Broadway with three daytime routes out of four. Highgate is barely touched: the 43, 134, 143, 210, 214, 234 and 263 are all absent from the strike list, so Highgate village and Archway Road keep a full service.

Why they are striking

The dispute is not about pay. Unite says most Arriva London North buses have air cooling rather than air conditioning, and that during this summer’s heatwaves it cut cab temperatures by “around two or three degrees” while driver cabs reached 40 degrees and higher. The union says drivers have suffered heat exhaustion, heat stroke and dehydration, and that one was signed off for five days after heatstroke during the June heatwave.

The second half of the dispute is a set of allegations about management conduct. Unite says its representatives and members have been bullied for raising the issue.

General secretary Sharon Graham said drivers “are putting themselves at risk due to these appalling conditions”, and that Arriva “can fully afford to make meaningful changes our members can accept”. The union points to Arriva’s mid-2025 figures, which it gives as a pre-tax profit of 156 million euros and an operating profit of 127 million euros.

Regional officer Steven Stockwell said there was “still time for Arriva to stop this disruptive action”, but that it depended on the company returning with a deal on conditions.

The drivers involved work out of eight garages: Barking, Edmonton, Enfield, Grays, Palmers Green, Stamford Hill, Tottenham and Wood Green. The last of those is in this borough, which is part of why Wood Green and Turnpike Lane lose more routes than anywhere else on our patch.

This week is worse, because the Piccadilly line is shut too

For Wood Green, Turnpike Lane and Bounds Green, this week is a double hit.

TfL’s live status has no service on the Piccadilly line between Cockfosters and Uxbridge on Tuesday 25, Wednesday 26 and Thursday 27 August. Trains run only between Acton Town and Heathrow, and replacement buses are operating. We checked TfL’s own journey planner for a 9am trip from Wood Green to Green Park this morning: it offered three routes, and not one of them used the Piccadilly line.

That closure takes out Wood Green, Turnpike Lane, Bounds Green, Manor House, Arnos Grove and the Piccadilly platforms at Finsbury Park, on the same three days the Arriva routes serving those stations have little or no service.

Unite said in its 4 August announcement that it was aware some strike dates coincided with Piccadilly line closures in August and September.

What it means for you

• From Crouch End Broadway, you still have three daytime routes. The 91 to Wood Green and Trafalgar Square, the W5, and the W7 to Finsbury Park. Only the 41 and the night N41 are out. The W7 is still on its Crouch Hill diversion until 2 November, so it does not serve Crouch Hill station.
• From Muswell Hill, the 102 is the only loss. The 43, 134, 144, 234, 299 and W7 are all running.
• From Highgate, nothing changes. No route serving Highgate station or Archway Road is on the strike list.
• From Wood Green or Turnpike Lane this week, plan for neither bus nor tube. The rail alternatives are not part of either dispute: Harringay Green Lanes is on the Overground’s Suffragette line, which TfL lists in good service, and Alexandra Palace, Hornsey and Harringay have Great Northern trains to Finsbury Park and Moorgate. On the buses, the 91, N91, 144, 184 and 232 are all absent from the strike list.
• Put 4 and 7 September in the diary now. They are the first Friday and the first Monday of the school year, and both are strike days.
• Check on the day. TfL publishes the live position for every route on its bus status page, and a strike can be called off at short notice, as the 19 to 21 August one was.

Our roadworks and travel page carries the rest of the local picture, including the W5’s two diversions being lifted this week and Crouch Hill staying shut until 2 November. We reported the first strike day on 18 August when the next walkout was still conditional on the ballot.

Sources

• Arriva North London bus driver strikes resume next week, Unite the Union, 23 August 2026 for the rejected offer, the full list of remaining strike dates, the eight garages, the profit figures and the quotes from Sharon Graham and Steven Stockwell.
• Arriva North London bus strikes halted to allow members to vote on new offer, Unite the Union, 18 August 2026 for the suspension of the 19 to 21 August action and the condition that strikes would resume on 25 August if members rejected the deal.
• Major disruption to bus services as Arriva North London workers will strike over conditions, Unite the Union, 4 August 2026 for the original date list, the air cooling detail and the note about Piccadilly line closures.
• Arriva North London drivers strike over roasting buses as capital sees fifth heatwave, Unite the Union, 13 August 2026 for the 40 degree cab temperatures and the driver signed off after heatstroke.
• TfL bus strike information and TfL bus status, checked 25 August 2026, for the list of 43 affected routes and the “little or no service” wording.
• TfL route and stop data, checked 25 August 2026, for which of those routes serve stops in this area: route stop points and the Crouch End Broadway stop.
• TfL Piccadilly line status, checked 25 August 2026, for no service between Cockfosters and Uxbridge on 25, 26 and 27 August 2026, and TfL’s journey planner for the same date, which returned no Piccadilly line option from Wood Green.
• School term dates 2026 to 2027, Haringey Council for the autumn term running from 2 September to 23 October 2026 and half term from 26 to 30 October.