The mayor of London publicly criticised executives in charge of the system as a 24-hour stoppage from 8pm last night threatened to halt most services until tomorrow morning.
Tube managers expect little more than a couple of dozen of its 500 trains to run today and warned passengers few others were likely to leave depots this evening when the walkout officially ends at 8pm.
With a second 24-hour strike called from 8pm next Tuesday, Mr Livingstone turned on underground managers rather than strike leaders.
The mayor criticised those operating a system he formally takes control of next year after managers rejected another union offer to use binding arbitration to resolve a dispute over an imposed 3% pay rise.
Mr Livingstone said: "Londoners are disgusted that they're going to be inconvenienced because a knucklehead management at London Underground are not prepared to go to arbitration."
The RMT rail union is claiming 5.7% and the Aslef drivers a "substantial" increase while tube managers maintain 3% is all they can afford.
A management spokeswoman said both sides had been to the Acas conciliation service but the underground had declined binding arbitration because it had no more to spend.
