RMT General Secretary Bob Crow has written about London Underground's 'Operational Vision' in The Guardian. The plans could see all ticket offices closed by 2016, trains without drivers introduced and maintenance regimes reduced.

Crow says "To those preoccupied with costs, or perhaps with putting a workforce in its place, this might yet sound reasonable, but let us have a look at what it might mean in the real world. London Underground carries three million passengers a day – more than a billion a year. In the morning and evening peaks, a single train can carry 1,500 people – about the same number as a Eurostar train."

"In the de-staffed railway of the future, what would happen if a train stopped in a tunnel? ... Now think what might have happened during the 2005 terror attacks. There has been much talk of automated systems already operating. One such was the 35-year-old Washington DC metro, which switched to manual operation in the wake of a horrific rush-hour crash in June 2009 that killed nine people, including the operator."

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