London rises early to beat the chaos

They were crowded, bleary-eyed, short of sleep and short of temper - but somehow they did it. It may have meant starting the rush hour three hours early, it may have meant standing-room only for thousands of commuters, but today they managed to defy the Tube strike and get in to work.

Along the way they had endured journeys that were nightmarish even by the appalling standards of the average London rush hour.

At mainline stations commuters faced scenes of chaos as thousands raced to catch the handful of buses available, while queues for taxis stretched round the block. Everyone, it seemed, tried turningup early in an effort to beat the rush. But some were not early enough and by 6.30am traffic on Marylebone Road was already heavy and there was standing-room only on the buses.

Lisa St Mannion, 27, a shop manager from Loughton, normally starts work at 9am but decided to come in early. "My dad gave me a lift in so I'm now more than two hours early for work."

She experienced severe delays last night, she said. "I tried to get the bus but got stuck in traffic for two hours. I called my boyfriend and he came and picked me up. It's just very annoying especially because they are keeping the congestion charge today which means I couldn't bring my car in. It's very frustrating."

Zoe Collard, 21, was trying to get from Westbourne Park to Waterloo on the first day of her new job as a bar supervisor. "I've been up since 5am and already I'm late. I am just sitting here waiting for a bus which is a complete pain - and I've got a cold."

By 7am most buses were already filled to capacity. On the 205 between Marylebone and Liverpool Street, passengers were being turned away. Julie Yeomans, 44, a civil servant from Earlsfield, normally uses the Jubilee line to get to Blackfriars Bridge but had to queue with thousands of others for the bus.

She said: "I'm getting a bit tired of all this. I generally have a bit of sympathy for people who choose to strike but I'm getting sick and tired of them doing it every time they want a pay rise. I think that maybe Tube workers are taking the mickey now."

Steve Folan, 43, an IT manager from Twickenham travelling to Bishopsgate, said: "It's a disgrace. I've worked in Paris and they also have strikes but generally they will only be for an hour or so and they don't cripple the capital."

At Victoria station, commuters were resigned rather than angry. Jacqueline Jury, 29, from Clapham, said: "I work in Tottenham Court Road. I will be walking - I have got my work shoes in my bag, which is why I am wearing trainers."

Ms Jury continued: "It is a nice day so I might as well enjoy the walk. It does not seem that long since the last strike, and I do not even know what this one is about. They should all just get their heads together and sort it out."

By 8am the queues at bus stops and the taxi rank outside Victoria were even longer - but there was good news in the form of a limited service on the Victoria, District and Northern lines.

"I need to get to Tottenham," said Michael Harrison, 33, a landscape gardener from Clapham, who arrived at Victoria by train. "I had not really thought about how I was going to get to work, and was expecting to have to take buses. But it looks like I can get there by Tube."

Outside Waterloo, tempers became frayed as thousands of commuters queued for buses, some waiting up to 30 minutes. A handful of bus staff struggled to cope amid scenes of growing frustration and anger.

The chaos began last night, with many commuters leaving work early before the Tube network shut down at 6.30pm.

The crush of commuters struggling to get on to the platforms and through the ticket barriers at Oxford Circus was so bad that staff were forced to close the station for 20 minutes at 6pm.

Many City workers stayed in town for the night with the result that hotels across London were full to capacity. It was a different story for theatres, which were only half-full and many restaurants operated at only a fraction of their capacity.

Late last night there were queues of up to 100 people at bus stops. One traffic queue stretched through Knightsbridge from Harvey Nichols to Hyde Park Corner. A driver said: "I thought that by the middle of the night the problems would have calmed down a bit, but it was almost gridlock."