The leader of the RMT union today threatened to call a second London Tube strike within a fortnight if the union’s demands are not met.
As Londoners endured their second day of travel misery, Bob Crow said that if there was no progress in talks with Transport for London then he would not hesitate to call thousands of members of Tube staff out on strike again within days.
The 48-hour stoppage that began on Tuesday night is due to end at 7pm. Commuters have been warned that the Underground will still be disrupted this evening, with services not expected to return to normal until tomorrow morning.
Talks that had seemed imminent this morning, as a fresh batch of union proposals for resolving the dispute were sent over to TfL, had by mid afternoon still failed to materialise.
“If we don’t make progress and come to an agreement with Transport for London, then we will definitely strike again,” said Mr Crow, speaking from a picket line at Queen’s Park station on the Bakerloo line.
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“It won’t be next week as you have to give seven days’ [legal] notice but it could be as soon as the week after.”
He added that he was pleased about the impact of the strike. “It was a solid success,” he said. “The whole city ground to a halt and the disruption it caused was all over the papers.”
Meanwhile Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, came under pressure to justify why he is refusing to talk to Mr Crow in person.
Last night he unhooked his earpiece and refused to take part in an interview on Channel 4 News after learning that he would be expected to appear alongside the RMT boss. He was interviewed separately later instead.
Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor, dubbed Mr Johnson’s stance a mistake, and accused him of failing to keep an election pledge to agree a no-strike deal with the transport unions.
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Today Andrew Dismore, a Labour MP, ratcheted up the pressure on Mr Johnson by telling the Commons that the Mayor had deliberately provoked the strike by ordering TfL negotiators by phone to withdraw support for a deal that had already been reached, less than an hour before the industrial action was due to start. Mr Johnson’s fingerprints were “all over” the incident, Mr Dismore claimed.
This version of Tuesday night’s events at the offices of the Acas conciliation service has also been put about by Mr Crow and the RMT.
Mr Johnson’s spokesman was today finally stung into responding, saying: “The Mayor had no involvement in the negotiations. These were led by Richard Parry, the managing director of London Underground, whom the Mayor entrusted to deliver the best result for Londoners.
“The RMT leadership is being duplicitous when they say that there was an agreement on the table. In fact, only a version that the RMT were proposing existed. LU made the very reasonable request that the RMT suspend strike action so that this could be worked through.
“However the RMT leadership refused to continue or give the talks more time and walked out.
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“Londoners will be infuriated by their behaviour and will join us in calling for the RMT to suspend this strike immediately and return to negotiations.”
Harriet Harman, the Leader of the Commons, accused both sides of grandstanding about the dispute and called on Mr Johnson to play his part in making sure that London’s transport network was working properly.
“What we don’t need is megaphone diplomacy on any side, what we don’t need is soundbites from people.What we need is a proper public transport system,” said Ms Harman.
Five of the 11 Underground lines were offering a partial service during the morning rush hour, and the Northern Line, while very busy, was operating almost as normal.
By this afternoon seven lines were offering a partial service and a further two - the Northern and the Jubilee - were operating close to normally. Only the Circle and the Waterloo & City lines remained suspended.
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Trams, overground trains and the Docklands Light Railway were operating with some delays.
The worst effects of the strike were being felt by drivers, with a second day of gridlock on the approach roads into Central London. Travellers told of spending three hours in traffic to go eight miles.
Bus passengers have also endured long waits to board overcrowded buses, despite an extra 100 vehicles being put into service.
Today Mr Johnson refused to accept any blame for failing to avert the walkout as he talked to commuters using a shared taxi initiative at London Bridge station this morning, one of numerous emergency measures to help Londoners get to work.
“Once again I apologise for the disruption but I must say I lay the blame squarely at the door of the extremely ill-advised leadership in the RMT,” said Mr Johnson.