Piccadilly line Tube strikes: Massive disruption expected as walkout set to go ahead next week

Hundreds of thousands of Piccadilly line users face massive disruption next week in the run-up to Easter as union leaders ordered a series of strikes to go ahead.

The first of a series of 24-hour walkouts by up to 400 RMT train drivers will take place from 9pm next Wednesday, March 23, until the same time the following day .

Services will then be crippled throughout the following day - hitting travellers heading off to Heathrow for the Easter holidays.

This will be followed by two more 24-hour strikes but spread over four days for maximum impact.

Walkouts will take place from 12 noon on Tuesday, April 19 lasting until the same time on Wednesday, April 20, and again from 12 noon, 21 April until the same time on Friday, 22 April.

The Piccadilly is the fourth busiest line on the network used by more than 600,000 passengers a day and serves all the Heathrow Airport terminals.

Unions have been involved in a long-running dispute with management on the line, who they accuse of "bullying, harassment and intimidation". LU deny the claims.

Mick Cash, the RMT leader, accused Tube bosses of a “hostile and aggressive attitude” which led to the collapse of peace talks – claims also robustly denied by London Underground.

He said: “The wholesale abuse of procedures and agreements by management on the Piccadilly line is rife and amounts to the wholesale development of a campaign of bullying, harassment and intimidation that the union will not allow to continue."

An RMT-only walkout – there are a few Piccadilly drivers belonging to the rival union Aslef – would cause major disruption.

The line is an RMT stronghold and has a history of both industrial unrest and delays. When the Evening Standard highlighted the delays in November LU blamed leaves on the line.