The chaos was not only confined to the south: transport was disrupted and tens of thousands of homes were left in freezing darkness as blizzards caused havoc in the north of England and Scotland.
In London the walkout by more than 2,000 members of the train drivers' union Aslef, called over fears about safety under the government's plans to part-privatise the underground, all but shut down the network, leaving fewer than 10% of trains running.
With only 40 out of the usual 476 trains in service, the disruption sharply increased traffic congestion and overcrowding on bus and rail services, with City of London police calling in extra officers to patrol bus queues after scuffles broke out between stranded passengers.
London Underground, which was accused of provoking the strike by the London mayor, Ken Livingstone, agreed to meet both main rail unions this morning at the conciliation service Acas in an attempt to avoid the next two stoppages, planned for Monday and Monday week.
Yesterday's strike went ahead despite last Friday's agreement by the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, to give Mr Livingstone's transport commissioner, Bob Kiley, a free hand to draw up "modifications" to the government's partial selloff plans to avoid the fragmentation of the tube.
The unions have welcomed the move, but all sides concede that there is still no agreed compromise formula and Aslef and the Rail Maritime and Transport union - whose own strike vote was overturned by the High Court last week - are determined to secure safety guarantees from tube managers.
Mr Livingstone laid the blame for yesterday's disruption at the door of "senior London Underground management", who he said had provoked the strike and "been consistently unconvincing about safety on the tube, both to myself and the trade unions".
Mick Rix, general secretary of Aslef, which represents around three-quarters of tube drivers, said the union regretted the inconvenience. "But this is a dispute about safety and we believe most commuters realise that a small inconvenience today is far better than a big accident tomorrow."
Steve Norris, Transport for London board member, described the strike as a "cynical waste of time", and said it had nothing to do with safety and a lot to do with job preservation.
Another board member, Susan Kramer, said: "I'm really sad that the mayor has not had big enough shoulders to accept that he has supported the trade unions to strike and blaming it on London Underground management.
"I do not think that anyone in the real world is convinced that this will make the government more sensitive to the misery of travel in London."
The weather was the cause of further misery in the north as around 20 inches of snow blanketed Northumberland, cutting power supplies and forcing schools to turn children away. The North Yorkshire moors and the Pennines were under eight inches of snow.
In Scotland more than five inches of snow fell at Ab erdeen and seven inches fell at Eskdalemuir in Dumfriesshire, leaving more than 4,000 households in darkness.
In Shetland all schools were closed and public transport services cancelled in whiteout conditions. In Grampian more than 100 schools closed. Several main roads in Aberdeenshire and Tayside were blocked.
In County Durham coastguards and traffic control were on alert after two deaths from the snow. On Sunday a teenage boy was swept to his death as he walked along the North Sea coastline at South Gare. He was one of a group of three teenagers washed into icy water by force nine gales.
In Darlington a 39-year-old man died when his car collided with a council snowplough and gritter on the A68.
