Emergency brake failure has led to the suspension of three busy London tube lines both yesterday and today, causing chaos for commuters and further tension between London Underground and the unions.
Services on the Hammersmith and City, Circle and District line services were suspended today after the Rail Maritime and Transport Workers Union (RMT) said the emergency brake failsafe system failed to operate on several trains after tests.
The fault allows emergency brakes on the 1972 'C' stock to be released and the train to continue motoring without the driver having to reset the system, explains the RMT.
The RMT claim the director of safety refused to meet the union over what was described as 'a storm in a teacup'.
But London Underground says the trains have been removed from service and are currently being checked.
"It is clear that we need urgent checks on the entire fleet, but we also need to understand how and why the fault is occurring and why the daily checks on the stock have not picked it up," RMT boss Bob Crow says.
The lines are maintained by contractor Metronet Rail, which is being run by administrators following its collapse in July.
This is the second time in a month that major disruption has occurred for Metronet maintained lines after the RMT went on strike for two days, shutting down most of the London tube network.
By Ozge Ibrahim
