London tube strikes: first wave of industrial action to begin as talks end

Most tube lines will see fewer trains running, and only certain sections and intermittent stations likely to remain open. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

The first of two planned tube strikes in London over the next fortnight is set to go ahead from Monday night after talks ended without agreement.

Members of the RMT union working on the capital's underground network will strike for 48 hours from 9.30pm over plans to close ticket offices.

Tube bosses accused the union leadership of holding a pointless strike and "simply making it up as they go along", but the RMT said tube managers were "hell-bent on confrontation". A two-hour meeting at the arbitration service Acas gave no sign of a breakthrough.

Services will be severely affected in places. Transport for London (TfL) vowed to keep the capital moving but appealed to commuters to plan their journeys and where possible walk or cycle.

Most tube lines will see fewer trains running, and only certain sections and intermittent stations likely to remain open. Some of the greatest disruption will be on the Piccadilly and Central lines, both closed in central London, while other lines will close for stretches in outer zones – full details are published on the TfL website.

Passengers at Britain's biggest airport, Heathrow, face particular disruption in reaching central London with the RMT calling a separate strike on the Heathrow Express service. A reduced, half-hourly service is expected to run. The Piccadilly line will not be stopping at terminals four and five and a vastly reduced service from the airport's other services will only run as far as Acton Town.

The industrial action will be followed next week by another, 72-hour strike after the bank holiday weekend.

Across the tube network, trains are expected to only start after 7am on Tuesday and Wednesday and services likely to end by 11pm.

But more tube services are expected to remain in action than during the February strike – when about 70% of services were affected – as TSSA staff are not taking part in the action.

Extra buses and river boat services will run, and TfL backroom staff will work at stations as "ambassadors" to provide travel information. The Docklands Light Railway and London's overground network will not be directly affected but likely to be extremely busy with extra demand.

The congestion charge will not be lifted, with TfL unwilling to see more drivers clog the capital's streets. Traffic analysts Inrix warned motorists to expect delays of up to an hour on a typical 60-minute rush-hour journey.

Mike Brown, managing director of London Underground, said the RMT appeared "implacably opposed to the modernisation of the tube".

He said safety and security would not be compromised by plans to close ticket offices and that there would be no compulsory redundancies, although around 900 jobs will be cut. He said: "However, the RMT leadership continues to say no to everything. They are simply making it up as they go along.

"Only the RMT leadership know the real motivations behind their actions, but it is infuriating that London's commuters and businesses are the ones who are being forced to pay the price with five days of utterly pointless and disruptive strikes."

The proposed changes, which have been given extra urgency for tube bosses by cuts in the TfL budget, will see the axing of hundreds of station office jobs that TfL believes have been made redundant by technology and cashless payment.

Three other unions are still discussing the proposals, including the TSSA union, which took action alongside the RMT in February. The RMT was believed to be unofficially attending talks with tube management and other unions last week.

But RMT negotiators are taking a hardline stance, with an impending vote to elect the leader of the union after the sudden death of its general secretary, Bob Crow, in March. A rally in memory of Crow and the late Labour politician Tony Benn will be held on Thursday, between the two planned strikes.

London Underground says its plans will see more staff available in public areas of stations. The RMT claims job losses will rise and ordinary staff could face heavy pay cuts while senior management pay levels increase.

The union's acting general secretary, Mick Cash, said: "London Underground have dug themselves into an entrenched position and have refused to move one inch from their stance of closing every ticket office, in breach of the agreement reached previously through Acas which enabled us to suspend the previous round of action.

"Despite the spin from LU, nothing that they are proposing is about modernisation. The current plans, closing every ticket office and axing nearly a thousand safety-critical jobs, is solely about massive austerity cuts driven centrally by David Cameron and his government and implemented by Mayor Boris Johnson."

Cash claimed that if a proper public consultation was offered, the union would call off its strike, but the idea was "rejected wholesale by tube managers who seem hell-bent on confrontation".

An Acas spokesman said: "The meeting between RMT and London Underground this morning has now finished. Our services remain available to the parties and we will continue to maintain close contact with the parties."

Johnson urged the union to call off its "pointless strike". He said: "Commuters and businesses will suffer because a few narrow-minded union barons are currently flexing their muscles in a fight for the leadership of a union where just 30% of members support a strike."