It was just a week ago when the second spate of the recent strike action on the London Underground was called off. Before this, images of chaos were scattered around the media, illustrating the crowds created by the closures of many stations across London, frequently accompanied by a rant at the inconvenience of a commuter’s journey.

However, while we were all watching and reading the news in horror at how long some commuter’s journeys took and seeing all these images of seas of people, there was never a clear explanation for what all this strike was all about. Essentially, the government want to modernise and upgrade the Underground by replacing ticket offices with automated machines as well as introducing trains run by computers rather than manually through a driver. Therefore, as the government seem to be ignoring the protests of those that proudly work on the London Underground, they have taken to striking to hope this will make more of an impact upon them.

This is not the first time we have seen this coverage. Strikes are also contentious events as the public is normally spilt in what they think about them. As this seems like the latest strike in a long list just this year, Londoners are growing increasingly unsympathetic considering the problem is with the government, not the travellers.

Nonetheless, despite the negative portrayals and attitudes in the media of the strikes, many Londoners have embraced the chaos that lasts for a few days. One of these Londoners is 18 year-old student, Tijana Todorinovic, who is studying History of Art at The Courtauld Institute situated within Somerset House. Having to travel from her home every day in West London, she describes the whole event as over-exaggerated: “It was busier and a bit more hectic in the city, but we knew this was going to happen on the days that it did. All the dramatic photos of people queuing outside buses and standing outside closed stations were just missing the point entirely”. She agrees that the workers were striking for good reasons, and although the media was, on the surface, showing the disruption being caused as an impact of the strike, it was also displaying the importance for the London Underground to run effectively – be it with computers or people – by shutting down the key mode of transport within the city and causing maximum disruption.

Throughout the striking days, David Cameron and Boris Johnson seemed to repeatedly emphasise the chaos for business and the impact of people’s daily lives in London. Is this merely because the strikes are a protest to their policy or something more significant? Considering 87% of Oyster Card users seen on a daily basis on the network were reported to be used during the strikes, it is clear that perhaps the impact these politicians are describing may be exaggerated themselves. Ben Austin-Duch, a History student at King’s College, London, who also commutes to university, says that most key media and political figures only care about “making London as efficient as possible, a finely tuned money machine for big business, not for the people of the city.” Ben’s journey on these days were not too trouble either, as there was clear advertising of the limited service on the lines, it merely meant the buses and trains were busier. He, like Tijana, agreed that the media was too preoccupied with the impact on commuters rather than the key concerns behind the walk-out.

Clearly, the media continues to mediate the coverage of the strike – a key issue particularly for supposedly ‘neutral’ broadcasters like the BBC. Despite this, Tijana and Ben agree they are both students where their livelihood does not depend on whether they show up for work which may affect their opinion. Still, perhaps when we look at any future strikes on London transport, we need to think bigger than what is being presented in front of us. It is true that London depends on the running of a transport network to connect the city together and beyond, but in some ways, this is taken for granted. A strike where the monotony of our routines is disrupted may make us appreciate the efficiency and easiness of London transport.

As Ben adds about the origin of the strikes, “if modernising the Underground means limited human contact through automatic trains and ticket machines, I think it would be a sadder place”. A capital city where the entire transport system is run by machines and computers, the only interactions coming from fellow passengers (and even that’s limited presently on the Tube), well, that’s a horrible thought for the future of our capital city.