Start of London’s night tube service will be delayed

Brown said the unions demanded more money before announcing the latest strike action, which follows two strikes earlier in the summer that shut down the tube completely.

However, the militants seem to have won a victory after it emerged today that the introduction of the “night tube” is likely to be delayed from its scheduled start date of September 12.

The news comes at London Underground drivers in the Aslef union say they will not be joining two fresh strikes later this month over the long-running Might Tube dispute.

Len Duvall, leader of the London Assembly Labour group, said: “By speculatively announcing a start date without any consultation with the people expected to run the service, Boris Johnson’s gung-ho approach has led to disputes, disruption and now delay”.

A statement said the cost of what unions were asking for would be about £1.4 billion to 2023/24, increasing fares by 6.5% or scaling back modernisation plans.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) and Unite members will all take part.

But Mick Cash, general secretary at RMT claimed the figures from London Underground are simply “scaremongering”.

Steve White, operations director for the Underground, said: ‘The unions are now taking action short of strike, which on occasion disrupts the service on the District Line.

“To minimise the impact on customers we are using qualified and experienced managers and engineers to complete some of the maintenance checks normally carried out by staff involved in the industrial action”. However, London Underground and the unions haven’t been able to agree on how it was to be staffed – with the RMT recently describing shift patterns as “rosters from hell” – and you can’t have failed to notice how the row has escalated into strikes.

Subway workers had been offered a 2 percent pay increase this year and at least 1 percent in 2016 to back the Night Tube, plus a 500-pound bonus on affected lines and a 2,000-pound lump sum for drivers.