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• Around 1,500 Unite union members at Arriva North London are striking for four days from Tuesday over unbearable cab temperatures.
• Drivers say their compartments can hit 40°C, and have reported heatstroke, fatigue and near misses because of the heat.
• More than 40 bus routes across the capital will be affected, with ten more strike days planned up to mid-October if the row is not settled.

London bus drivers are walking off the job this week, and the reason comes down to something most commuters have been complaining about too: the heat. Around 1,500 drivers working for Arriva North London are staging a four-day strike starting Tuesday, after a long-running row over just how hot it gets inside their cabs during the summer months.

According to the drivers, temperatures inside their compartments can climb as high as 40°C, and it is not just uncomfortable, it is genuinely dangerous. Some have reported heatstroke, fatigue and even near-miss incidents behind the wheel because of the extreme conditions. This comes as the UK finds itself in the middle of its fifth heatwave of the summer, with the country on track for its warmest one on record. London itself hit 38.1°C earlier this month, and the UK's Health Security Agency estimates nearly 3,000 excess deaths occurred in May and June alone because of the hot weather.