Prospects grow for a Christmas Tube strike

The prospect of strike action disrupting Tube services on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve grew today.

Talks to try and avert a strike on one of London Underground's busiest lines are taking place at Acas, the conciliation service.

Aslef, the train drivers' union, is demanding the reinstatement of a driver demoted to station assistant after recording four instances of passing through signals at red.

The dispute involves more than half the drivers on the Piccadilly line, used by more than 600,000 passengers a day.

A second 24-hour stoppage has also been ordered for 5 January. Steve Grant, Aslef 's London district secretary, said: "Our member has been singled out for harsh punishment. He has been demoted to station assistant which means the loss of ?11,000 a year."

A senior LU source said: "We believe we have acted very fairly over this issue.

Meanwhile more than 330 Tube signal workers and line controller staff - members of the RMT - are voting for strike action on New Year's Eve in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.