Central line strike: Londoners face rush hour chaos as walkout brings two busy Tube lines to a halt

London Underground passengers are facing rush hour chaos as two lines come to a grinding halt during a 24-hour strike.

Staff on the Central and Waterloo & City Line are staging a walkout which got underway at midnight and will not finish until Thursday morning.

Major stations across the city are affected by the disruption including Stratford, Liverpool Street, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, King's Cross St Pancras and Bank.

Union bosses said the strike was going ahead following a "complete breakdown of industrial relations", while attempts to resolve the issue with last-ditch talks failed.

A huge crowd surge at Liverpool street during a strike on the Central Line last month
Alex Lentati

It comes after a separate planned walkout on the Piccadilly Line from 1.30pm was called off, the RMT union confirmed yesterday.

Packed: commuters at Liverpool street during a previous Central Line strike
Alex Lentati

But RMT blasted Underground bosses over "a comprehensive breakdown in industrial relations, a failure to employ enough drivers, a wholesale abuse of agreed procedures and the victimisation of a trade union member".

London Underground said both the RMT and Aslef unions were demanding that two drivers were reinstated on the Central line - one who deliberately opened the doors of a train in a tunnel and one who failed a drugs test.

Union leaders said to be furious that an appeal to reinstate the driver who had opened the train doors at a station while two carriages were still in the tunnel was rejected by Tube chiefs.

Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on the Underground, said it was “simply wrong that a driver with 25 years of excellent service should be summarily dismissed for one error of judgment”.

Tube Strike October 2018 - In pictures

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According to TfL, Aslef refused an invitation to meet for talks in the dispute with the team of Central line drivers.

Nigel Holness, managing director of London Underground, said the strikes were "unnecessary" and "totally unjustifiable"

He said: "Both are demanding the reinstatement of drivers sacked over serious safety breaches - one who deliberately opened the doors of a train in a tunnel, and one who failed a drugs test."

TfL said both the Central and Waterloo & City lines will have very limited or no service throughout Wednesday.

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