How I used Hermes to navigate the May TFL strike chaos
May 21, 2026 · 5 min read
London commuting in strike season is less about the strikes themselves and more about the constant uncertainty around them. Will they go ahead? Have they been suspended? Was that a suspension or a cancellation? Are new dates already announced? By the time you've pieced together the full picture, you're already late.
I commute from Hertfordshire into central London — Great Northern into King's Cross, then the Piccadilly line the rest of the way. When the RMT announced strike action on the Underground for 19–22 May, I decided not to play the usual game of refreshing the TFL website every morning. I set up a Hermes cronjob instead.
Setting it up
One message. That's the whole setup.
Hermes confirmed and scheduled the job. No config file, no webhook, no IFTTT chain.
What the briefing actually looked like
This is the real response I got. I've kept the formatting exactly as Hermes sent it.
🚇 London Underground — Strike Update
June strikes (still planned)
| Strike dates | Tue 2 June 00:01–23:59 · Thu 4 June 00:01–23:59 |
| Disruption | Mornings of Wed 3 and Fri 5 June also affected |
| Union | RMT (tube drivers) |
| Reason | Dispute over TfL's proposed compressed four-day week — union says it causes driver fatigue |
| Sources | TfL official strike page, The Guardian, BBC, Time Out |
May strikes (cancelled)
The strikes scheduled for 19–20 and 21–22 May were called off at the last minute. RMT said the employer changed stance at the final hurdle and both parties have resumed talks.
Impact on the Piccadilly Line
The RMT represents drivers across the entire network. The Piccadilly Line is expected to be severely disrupted or suspended on strike days.
🚆 Great Northern
Great Northern's official site confirms no current industrial action. However, on tube strike days, services into King's Cross will be exceptionally crowded. Travel early if you're coming in.
📋 Summary
| Tue 2 June | Full-day tube strike — Piccadilly Line severely affected |
| Wed 3 June | Lingering disruption in the morning |
| Thu 4 June | Full-day tube strike — Piccadilly Line severely affected |
| Fri 5 June | Lingering disruption in the morning |
Advice: WFH on June 2 and 4, or switch to Great Northern + bus/walking. Note: the May strikes were cancelled last minute — June could change too. Double-check as the dates approach.
The bit that actually mattered
The tube update I expected. What I didn't ask for — and what I got anyway — was the Great Northern section at the bottom. Hermes checked the train operator's own status page independently, confirmed there was no industrial action on my inbound leg, then flagged something subtler: even without a Great Northern strike, trains into King's Cross on tube strike days would be exceptionally crowded. Travel early, or don't bother.
That's the kind of thing you only know if you're watching both sides of the journey at once. I'd framed the task as "watch the tube strikes." Hermes treated it as "help me get to work without it being a disaster" and expanded its scope accordingly.
The on-again-off-again problem
The May walkouts were announced, hung over the whole week as a real threat, then called off on Sunday evening — the night before they were supposed to start. Anyone who checked on Friday and relaxed would have spent the weekend rearranging plans for nothing.
Hermes caught the cancellation the moment it was published and messaged me unprompted. I didn't have to remember to check. And crucially, the same briefing that said May was off said June was already scheduled — 2 and 4 June, already confirmed by the RMT. The dispute hadn't gone away, it had just moved.
I'm writing this on 21 May. I already know which days in June to block out for working from home. Two weeks' notice, zero effort.
The cronjob took one message to set up and costs nothing extra — it's included in the Starter plan.
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