Sarah Russell, a 33-year-old driver on London Underground’s Bakerloo line, has been posting short TikTok clips showing day-to-day work on the network as the capital endures a third day of strike action that has disrupted travel across the city.
Russell, who says she has been a Tube driver for 11 years, told her roughly 33,000 followers she began sharing videos to give the public a glimpse into a role many commuters never see. She describes the job as life-changing after having worked in hospitality before joining Transport for London, and says she expects to remain in the role for the remainder of her career.
In clips Russell posts, she explains operational details and routines rather than capturing incidents or disruptions. She said she films only when she is not in the driver’s cab and when services are "running smoothly," and that she avoids recording during service problems because she considers that unprofessional.
Russell outlined aspects of the role that passengers rarely see: the constraints on leaving the cab, the need to plan breaks carefully, and the end-of-shift procedures. She said drivers are not permitted to make discretionary stops and must wait to relieve themselves except in emergencies, making hydration and timing important. She described preferring the late shift — which she placed at around 4 to 4:30 p.m. and finishing at about 1 a.m. — and said she typically completes two full runs from one end of the line to the other during a shift.
She also described the post-service steps at the final station, which include emptying a train, checking that no passengers remain aboard, shunting the train back to the depot and taking a staff cab home, which must be pre-booked. Russell said training to become a driver at TfL can last about six months and that recruitment is competitive, with opportunities often arising from customer-service roles within the organisation.
Russell has used her account to answer followers’ questions about graffiti and working conditions; she has defended efforts to improve the state of carriages and highlighted the job’s benefits, including flexibility within train roles. She has not posted commentary about the current industrial action on her TikTok page.
The videos arrive as thousands of members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) staged walkouts in a dispute over pay and hours, prompting widespread delays and overcrowding on remaining services. Commuters have been using buses, boats, bicycles and overground trains, and reports from the capital described busy bus stops and packed services. Downing Street said Londoners would "rightly be fed up" with the strikes but declined to comment on calls to increase automation on the network as a remedy for future industrial disruption.
Russell’s clips have drawn attention both for humanising the work of drivers and for the practical details they reveal about operating a largely driver-operated line such as the Bakerloo. She said the first thing she does on returning home is wash her hands because of the grime encountered during shifts, then completes a short nighttime routine before sleeping in the early hours.