Photo by James Cridlan

TUBE UNION RMT today warned of serious risks to public safety as it emerged that track safety patrols on the Jubilee Line Extension are to be cut from twice weekly to just weekly in a move which may be extended across the Piccadilly, Northern and Jubilee Lines.

The halving of the frequency of safety inspections on the line is in contravention of current safety standards laid out for the whole of London Undergroundand as a result Tube Lines, which is responsible for the section of track, has applied for a formal concession to release them from current agreed safety procedures.

RMT are pointing to the move to halve safety inspections as clear evidence that claims by Mayor Boris Johnson that the £5 billion black hole facing TfL will not result in front line cuts are nonsense.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said:

“We have warned all along that the multi-billion pound black hole facing TfL, and the financial chaos at Tube Lines, would result in real service cuts and would impact on safety and reliability. We now have concrete evidence that our fears were well founded.

“The shift of policy from twice weekly to weekly track safety inspections is one that RMT will fight. There is a very real danger that if Tube Lines are able to rip up existing safety agreements and standards on the Jubilee Line that the rest of their tracks will follow with dire consequences for jobs and passenger safety.”