Travel chaos looms as Tube workers vote for two 48-hour strikes

Travel chaos looms as Tube workers vote for two 48-hour strikes

Dick Murray, Transport Correspondent
09.06.10

Three of the Underground's busiest lines could be crippled by strikes after maintenance workers voted for two 48-hour walkouts this summer.

The RMT said its members working on Tube Lines contracts will walk out from 7pm on June 23 and again from 7pm on July 14.
The union warned that the strike will have “severe consequences” across the Tube network, especially on the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee lines, which are maintained by Tube Lines.
Maintenance staff voted by nine to one in favour of the strike and the RMT refused to rule out further stoppages.
Transport for London is buying out stakeholders in Tube Lines for £3.2 billion after repeated delays in upgrades to the Jubilee and Northern lines.
But RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the company will continue to exist as a separate legal entity, meaning his members faced “an uncertain future”. He added: “We have given TfL, and their newly-acquired subsidiary Tube Lines, plenty of opportunity to give us assurances that staff won't take the hit for the failure of the doomed privatisation project. They have failed.”
A TfL spokesman said: “This action by the RMT relates to an existing dispute with Tube Lines, over which TfL does not have control.”
In an attempt to complete the Northern line's upgrade in time for the 2012 Olympics, Boris Johnson announced today that from July 5 the Bank branch between Kennington and Camden and the High Barnet branch north of East Finchley will close early at 9.30pm from Monday to Thursday. Trains will continue on the Charing Cross branch. Other sections will close at weekends next month and in August.
The Mayor said his closures will be less disruptive than those planned by Tube Lines. Only when the takeover of the company is completed at the end of the month will the full extent of its problems be known.
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