Second strike hits Tube services

Gates down at Tube station

The last strike resulted in major disruption across London

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Commuters are set to face another day of severe disruption on London’s Underground network as a second 24-hour strike over job cuts continues.

All lines on the Underground have been affected by the stoppage, which began at 1830 BST on Sunday.

Members of the RMT and TSSA unions are protesting against plans to cut about 800 jobs, mainly from ticket offices.

Transport for London (TfL) is laying on extra buses and river journeys in an attempt to reduce disruption.

It has organised 100 extra buses, increased capacity for more than 10,000 extra journeys on the river and also delayed road works.

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Those who own bikes have been encouraged to cycle to work.

On Monday morning there was no service on the Central, Jubilee, Victoria, Piccadilly, Metropolitan and Circle lines.

There were limited services on the Hammersmith and City, Bakerloo and District lines.

A similar walkout last month caused chaos on the Underground.

TfL pleaded with the unions to call off the strike, which it labelled “pointless”, but the unions hit back by saying the planned job cuts would threaten safety on the network.

On Sunday, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “We have warned repeatedly that TfL’s cuts plans are playing fast and loose with safety and will turn the Tube into a death trap.

“We remain available for talks but the current cuts to jobs and safety must be halted before we have a tragedy on our hands.”

London Underground’s managing director, Mike Brown, said the unions were “intent on disruption”.

He said: “Changing London Underground is not a choice, it is essential, and we will not be diverted from moving with the times.”

London mayor Boris Johnson attacked the strike, labelling it a “political attack” on the government.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he said: “We need to take account of the fact that some ticket offices are now selling fewer than 10 tickets an hour. We need to liberate staff to get out on to the platforms and concourses where they can be of most use to the travelling public.

“We have come up with a way of doing this that keeps a ticket office at every station that currently possesses one, and, remarkably, given the colossal budgetary pressures we face, we are able to do this with no compulsory redundancies.”

Two further strikes are planned for November if the dispute remains unresolved.

The RMT also banned its members from accepting overtime over the weekend in protest at the job cuts.

The strike can be followed on a BBC London Twitter feed and a live update web page.

An interactive map will be produced showing areas on the network with severe disruption.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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