Tube report 'toned down'

Union leaders today launched a blistering attack on Tube management claiming the report into last month's derailment at Hammersmith had been deliberately "toned down."

They also accused London Underground of trying to "bury" the report by delaying publication until late in the day.

A key section of the report - leaked to the RMT union the day before its official publication - concluded there was a problem with track workers in the Hammersmith area; the track section manager could not communicate with subcontractors "due to the inability of some operators to speak English".

This was reworded in the published version, to refer to workers for whom "English is not their first language".

Bobby Law, the RMT's London district organiser and a former Tube driver, said: "That section of the report has been deliberately toned down."

An LU spokesman denied any suggestion the report had been buried, and said the delay was because it was being "refined".

The RMT has ordered Tube drivers to obey a 48-hour "go-slow" next Monday and Tuesday in a protest over safety.