Union boss blames 'cuts to maintenance' for tube suspension

Today’s systems and signals failure on this crucial section of the Central line is yet another example of the Mayor and his officials winging it on their Olympics transport strategy and shows just how foolish they have been to ignore the warnings from RMT and others over the past two years on cuts to maintenance.

Track patrols, maintenance schedules and staffing numbers have all been cut leaving infrastructure at severe risk of the kind of breakdowns we have seen this week and yet there are even more cuts in the pipeline once the Olympics is over.