LU's legal bid to stop Aslef members staging a four day series of walkouts failed today, which means the Boxing Day strike will go ahead.
London Underground's attempt to scupper the strikes was based on the fact that all union members were balloted, even the ones not scheduled to work on Boxing Day, a state of affairs LU claimed made the ballot invalid. A High Court judge didn't agree.
A football match between Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers has been postponed by 24 hours though other matches, including Chelsea v Fulham look set to go ahead with fans advised to allow extra time for their journeys.
TfL have called the strike 'unnecessary' in a statement over the court's decision while satirical news site the Daily Mash settled for comparing tube drivers to professional footballers. Howard Collins, LU's Chief Operating Officer said;
'We will run as many Tube services as we can and extra buses will operate on the busiest bus routes. However, the action taken by the Aslef leadership is likely to cause serious disruption to Tube services across the network affecting the Christmas holiday plans of many Londoners.'