If it's another Tube strike, then it must also mean the return of our ace transport duo, Steve Phillips and Tom Edwards.
First, they've shot another exclusive, no expense-spared, on location video for Mind the Gap.
While trying to look cool balancing on the hire bikes, Tom and Steve discuss, among other things, if there's an end in sight to the industrial dispute and how you can get involved to help minimise any travel disruption for your fellow Londoners.
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Get involved:
And, if you can't quite bring yourself to watch their handsome faces and listen to their dulcet tones, then here is more information in plain old words.
Just to recap, why are they striking?
The RMT and TSSA unions are set to walk out over 800 job losses. London Underground are making the cuts to ticket office staff to save £16million a year.
There will also be a reduction in ticket office opening hours by 7500 hours in total across the network and six stations are going to lose ticket windows.
LU says there will be no compulsory redundancies and staff will be redeployed. It says sales from ticket offices are down 28 per cent over the last four years due mainly to the success of the Oyster Card.
The Unions say fewer staff and ticket office opening hours mean they won't be able to help as many people in particular the disabled and the vulnerable. And this is a "mugger's charter."
How effective was last strike? and how bad will it be this time around
I would say pretty effective - even on the Northern line, which was posted by TfL as running a 'good service', there were gaps of 10 to 15 minutes between trains with many stations closed.
There's every chance the second strike will be as bad as last month, with severe disruption to most Tube lines.
Transport for London, however, are saying there will be a better service than last month when they ran 40% of their trains.
Why did the talks break down?
We have had talks at the conciliation service ACAS but they don't seem to have got past first base.
There were whispers of some sort of deal but in reality the Unions put a pre-condition on the talks.
The condition was London Underground had to withdraw the threat of job losses and then talks could continue. LU refused to do that.
Talks on day one didn't last long an hour or so before they collapsed. The second attempt lasted 6 hours so we thought there had been some progress. But actually it still hadn't got over this first hurdle. The same happened on the 3rd day.
Also although the unions the RMT and the TSSA claim there is not a cigarette paper between them in terms of this strike, it is a negotiation with three parties and that's bound to make it trickier.
TSSA have not been on strike on the Tube since 1926 so they are not militant and haven't always seen eye to eye with the RMT.
Is TfL doing anything different this time? Lessons learnt?
Not much change to the last strike.
TfL are laying on over 100 extra buses, capacity for 10,000 more river boat trips, marshalled taxi ranks and roadworks will also be suspended.
Is this strike now political?
Well, some are certainly trying to make it political.
The Mayor Boris Johnson has said he believes the Unions are trying to make it political and use these cuts to attack the ConDem government.
You have to remember though these cuts are from the Mayor's £5bn efficiency savings from two years ago and not part of central Government cuts.
The Unions think this could be the tip of the iceberg when further cuts are announced to transport budgets later in October. That's why they are digging in.
Also the former Mayor Ken Livingstone is accusing Boris Johnson of not dealing with the situation and being more interested in grand standing at the Conservative Party Conference.
The Mayor says he won't meet the Unions while they are in the middle of a dispute.
Although it has to be said he didn't meet the Unions or had any contact with them before the dispute either.
Ken Livingstone also says Boris Johnson "ratted" on his pledge to stop ticket office closures during his Mayoral campaign.
However don't forget the former Mayor Ken Livingstone also had plans to close 40 ticket offices in 2007 and redeploy the staff onto platforms.
The current Mayor has shifted his position now to allow cuts in ticket office hours - he says due to the success of Oyster - but politically the boot is now on the other foot.
And the Unions now want the Mayor not to attend the Conservative Party Conference and to sort it out. That seems extremely unlikely.
The Unions would say this is simply a dispute about job losses and safety and they claim political angle is being overplayed.
How long is it likely to go on?
Well, we are in a loop when it comes to talks and at the moment there doesn't seem to be much movement.
The next strikes will be on November 2 and November 28. There's certainly the chance that the strikes could continue after that unless there's a compromise.
Where can we find out more on Monday?
Keep checking with us!
Listen to radio travel bulletins every 15 minutes on BBC London 94.9 on Sunday evening and all day on Monday.
There will be updates on BBC One during Breakfast.
Online, keep checking this website, our Twitter service @BBCTravelAlert and you can share your travel problems and tips on our Tube Strike Crowdmap.
Has this the potential to be the worst industrial dispute on London transport since 1979?
I think we are a long way from 1979.
In fact, we are a long way from the pay dispute in 2005/ 06 where the disruption was worse.
And experienced commentators say it's nowhere near the longest transport strike which was the signal workers dispute in the mid-1990s which lasted about three months with regular weekly 24, 48 and 36 hour stoppages.
That national strike crippled rail services into and out of London. So I think there's a way to go before we get to that.
|08:00 UK time, Saturday, 30 October 2010
