Commuters face seventh day of Tube trouble as strikes loom

Tens of thousands more Tube commuters suffered delays this morning as problems continued for a seventh day running.

A signal failure at Earl's Court crippled a major part of the District line, used by more than 600,000 passengers a day, during the morning peak.

There were long delays between Earl's Court and Edgware Road, with commuters advised to use other services and the remainder of the line suffering a knock-on effect.

The latest delays came as the threat of next week's Tube strike going ahead increased dramatically after the TSSA union boycotted peace talks aimed at settling the long-running dispute.

Tube staff are set to walk out from next Tuesday evening, November 2, with action lasting all day Wednesday, causing major disruption to more than three million people. A second 24-hour walkout is scheduled for Monday November 29.

The strike by the TSSA and RMT unions is in protest over jobs cuts to 650 ticket office staff and 150 station managers, most of whom are TSSA members.

The RMT will attend the talks but an agreement cannot be reached without the TSSA.

Manuel Cortes, deputy general secretary of the TSSA union, accused London Underground (LU) of "betrayal" saying the company had reneged on a pledge to talk about a review of plans to cut station management jobs.

He said: "We were going to the talks in good faith today, negotiations which would have included to a review of management job cuts. Now LU says it is are not prepared to do that."

A TfL spokesman said: "London Underground will be attending more talks at ACAS with the RMT leadership on Tuesday, when we hope to understand the detail of the union's concerns about our staffing proposals. We will again be reassuring the unions that these proposals come with no impact on our excellent safety record, a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and with a commitment that every station with a ticket office will continue to have one, and that all stations will continue to be staffed."