'Little or No Service' on Piccadilly Line for Four Days This Week

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London Underground publishes travel advice for RMT strike days

London Underground are warning passengers to expect little or no service on the Piccadilly line between the afternoon of Wednesday 26 September and the morning of Saturday 29 September due to industrial action by the RMT.

Talks to resolve the strike action are planned, but if it goes ahead services will be limited and the Night Tube will not run on Friday 28 September.

Passengers are advised to complete journeys on the Piccadilly line by 1pm on Wednesday. Services will resume at around 3.30pm on Friday, but will then begin to wind down again from 10pm. Services will then resume to a normal level at around 7.30am on Saturday between Heathrow and Cockfosters and around 8.30am from Uxbridge to Acton Town.

For passengers travelling between Heathrow airport and central London, TfL Rail services will be available to and from London Paddington station every thirty minutes, while Heathrow Express services will also run normally.

All other Tube lines are expected to run as normal. However, interchange stations along the Piccadilly line – Finsbury Park, Green Park, Hammersmith, and King’s Cross St. Pancras stations in particular – will be much busier than usual. Additional buses will be in operation to help passengers complete their journeys.

Nigel Holness TfL’s Director of Network Operations for London Underground, said: “We will provide customers with the latest information in order to help them plan their journeys during this possible strike action. The TfL website, journey planner and social media channels will all feature up-to-date travel advice and will be updated throughout the week. We have met with the RMT leadership to identify areas where we can work together to resolve this dispute. I urge them to continue to work constructively with us so that Londoners aren’t subjected to disruption across several days next week.”

TfL Travel Ambassadors will be at key locations to provide travel information and advice to customers affected by this action.

Piccadilly Line tube drivers who are members of the RMT union are striking again over what they say is a failure by management to deliver promised improvements.

The union’s complaints include alleged abuse of policies and procedures, delays and cancellations to planned training, failure to release union representatives for meetings and slow implementation of change on key health and safety ‎issues.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said, “RMT has given Tube bosses ample time to rebuild trust and relations with staff on the Piccadilly Line but instead they have strung us along and mugged us off and our members aren't having it. That's why we have had no choice but to put this action on and the responsibility for the chaos that will ensue on a line serving Heathrow and half a million passengers a day lays fair and square with London Underground management.

“The company seem to think that they can promise improvements one day and then get away with playing fast and loose with safety and taking liberties with policies and procedures the next. Well, they can't.

“Relations have now sunk to rock bottom and the Piccadilly Line remains a volatile powder keg due to the management contempt for the workforce. That has to change, and quickly. RMT remains ‎available for genuine and serious talks.”

The RMT last called a strike in July to coincide with the visit of Donald Trump. The 52 hour industrial action was called off after last minute talks at the conciliation service ACAS.

September 22, 2018