Member Article

Night Tube 'will not happen this year'

Plans for an all-night service on the London Underground have been pushed back to next year after several months of disputes between Transport for London (TfL) and the unions.

The RMT, Unite and TSSA unions, which have contested plans for a Night Tube for the duration of 2015, have now said that the service will not happen this year.

Up until this point, London Mayor Boris Johnson promised that the Night Tube would launch by the Autumn, with the initial date set at 10 September.

A senior union source said: “The talks have been crawling along anyway – and now they have stopped.

“Unless London Underground dramatically improves its offer – and there is no sign of that happening – then there is little chance of night Tube happening this year.”

Finn Brennan, ASLEF union organiser on London Underground, said: ’We have made it clear to London Underground that we want to keep talking and develop a solution that delivers night tube while protecting and improving work life balance for our members.

“We have put forward a number of proposals to resolve this dispute in a way that is fair and benefits both sides. London Underground have rejected them all. Most disappointingly of all they have decided to blackmail their own employees by refusing to make a pay offer unless staff agree to worsen their working conditions.

“That is not something we are prepared to accept. Underground management have completely mishandled these negotiations. They have wasted every opportunity for a settlement and seem to have been determined to provoke confrontation rather than resolution.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .