Tube safety strike ahead

Strike action on the Tube seemed almost certain today as London Underground chiefs rejected a key union demand over track safety.

The RMT, the largest Tube union, warned it will ballot for industrial action unless LU agrees to demands for a return to 24-hour track inspections and other safety improvements. The union is expected to make a formal announcement tomorrow.

Pat Sikorski, RMT assistant general secretary, clashed today with Mike Strzelecki, the LU director of safety, at a crisis meeting of the London Assembly's transport committee.

The meeting was called to discuss growing fears over safety following two derailments at the weekend and the evacuation of 3,000 commuters yesterday from stranded Victoria line trains.

Mr Strzelecki said 24-hour inspections had ceased in 1996 but detection methods using ultrasound had improved dramatically, resulting in parts of the Tube now being inspected every 72 hours.

He said that since 1996 "the number of derailments has gone down, the number of broken rails has gone down". The number of defects found before they led to an incident had risen from 100 to 550 a year, he added.

Mr Sikorski snapped back that Mr Strzelecki was "making assurances that cannot be maintained" as there were no figures to back up his argument.

He claimed the number of staff making track inspections during the day had been drastically reduced, and cited the Central line between White City and Ealing Broadway. "In 1989 there were 26 staff making 24-hourly inspections-Now there are six." He said staff had been cut to "fatten up" contracts for the two private consortia, Metronet and Tube Lines, which have taken over Tube maintenance for the next 30 years.

Mr Sikorski and Steve Grant, London District secretary of Aslef, the train drivers union, accused LU of failing to act when drivers reported track defects.

Lynne Featherstone, the leader of the committee, said she found the need to make such accusations "terrifying".

Mr Strzelecki, referring to the Hammersmith derailment on Friday caused by a broken rail, admitted: "Our track inspection is quite clearly not good enough and is going to have to change."

All Tube train drivers were today given unprecedented instructions from Aslef to refuse to drive - or to cut speeds to as low as 5mph - if they have any concerns about tracks being unsafe.