Tube union RMT today called for direct talks between the Mayor, unions and passenger groups, and demanded an immediate halt to tube jobs and maintenance cuts, after what the union described as “24 hours of tube hell.”

On Tuesday night the Jubilee Line was plunged into chaos through a combination of a power shutdown and faulty rolling stock and operating systems leaving over 1700 passengers to be detrained and walked through sweltering tube tunnels with the assistance of station staff. By Wednesday morning, the Jubilee Line was still in total disarray.

District, Metropolitan and Circle Line services were also disrupted.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Waterloo and City Line was hit by a communications fault and the misery was compounded by rush hour shutdowns on the Central Line at the same time due to a fire alert at Leytonstone, a faulty train at Bond St and a signals failure. The Piccadilly and District also experienced severe delays rounding up 24 hours of tube hell.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“It’s a start that the Mayor has admitted that the tube on his watch has become a “disaster” but now he needs to get the unions, passenger groups and his officials around a table to look at why we are facing this unprecedented chaos and to start working out some solutions. It’s our people on the ground who know exactly why London has been plunged into this transport crisis and not engaging the unions in direct discussions on a way forward is ridiculous.

“As a starting point, Boris Johnson needs to call an immediate halt to the jobs and maintenance cuts – it was the very station staff whose jobs are under threat who got the passengers out of the trains on Tuesday night and any more cuts to those posts would be a total disaster in the making. You can’t class staff as essential to a rescue operation one day and then threaten them with the sack the next.

“Just over a year away from the London Olympics we need urgent action to stop the tube lurching from crisis to crisis and we need that action now. Unleashing a further £7.6 billion of cuts, which is what TFL are proposing, will lead to a permanent and irretrievable breakdown in services.