RAIL STRIKES WILL BE £120MILLION HAMMER BLOW TO THE CAPITAL

WARNING THAT STOPPAGES WILL HIT ECONOMY AS LONDON BEARS BRUNT IN FOUR DAYS OF TRAVEL WOE

- Jonathan Prynn, David Bond and Rachael Burford

THE threatened four days of rail and Tube strikes starting this weekend will deliver a £120 million blow to London's economy just as the country faces the growing threat of a long recession, City forecasters warned today.

The travel misery is due to start on Saturday when train drivers' union Aslef stages a walkout which will disrupt nine networks across the country - including London Overground, Southeastern and Greater Anglia.

Most of the national rail network is then due to shut down on Thursday, August 18 and Saturday, August 20 when workers belonging to the RMT union go on strike. About 10,000 members of the same union working for London Underground and London Overground have voted to go on strike on Friday, August 19 - guaranteeing 72 hours of transport misery for commuters.

Simon French, chief economist at City brokers Panmure Gordon, said the scale of the stoppages means national GDP would face a £475 million hit with losses worth £150 million a day during the national rail shutdown and £100 million on the Friday in between. London will take the brunt with the impact totalling around £100 million over the three days. The Aslef walkout on Saturday will add a further £75 million of losses with £20 million of that in the capital, Mr French added. The Tube strike will cost Transport for London about £5 million in lost fares.

More than 1,600 London bus drivers are also going on strike on Friday August 19 disrupting dozens of major routes across the capital in a dispute over pay. The strikes come after last week's bleak forecast from the Bank of England predicted that the UK is likely to start slipping into a 15-month recession later this year. GDP figures for June are due to be published tomorrow with economists expecting see a reversal of May's growth of 0.5 per cent.