Hopes that London may escape a second day of Tube strikes have been dashed.
A London transport chief told how the RMT had made clear that it was pressing ahead with the second day of its industrial action on Thursday over a proposed four-day week for train drivers.
Nick Dent, director of customer operations on the London Underground for Transport for London, said it was still open to talks to try to reach a deal to avert the second walkout.
"We asked them to suspend both strike days this week to allow further talks to take place,” he told BBC Radio London.
"We did agree together that talks would continue next week, but unfortunately, the RMT made clear to us yesterday they had made the decision to go ahead with both days this week.”
He added: "We are available for talks. We'd talk today, or we'd talk tomorrow, but they made clear, unfortunately, that both of these days will be going ahead this week."
The RMT is seeking to blame TfL for the failure to find a compromise to avoid the strikes.
Eleventh-hour talks through the conciliatory service Acas were held on Monday but despite going on for more than five hours the two sides remained far apart.
An RMT spokesperson said: "Despite our best efforts in ACAS talks, TfL have failed to provide assurances on our members deeply held concerns around fatigue, reduced flexibility, shift lengths and the impact these proposals could have in a safety-critical role like tube driving.”
He stressed that the union remained “available for meaningful talks”.
However, Mr Dent stressed that RMT representatives had not been pressing safety or driver fatigue as major issues during the latest talks.
"I would like to make absolutely clear that this strike is not about safety," he added.
"Safety is our absolute priority."
He emphasised: "These changes, which are supported by Aslef, the other major trade union who represents drivers, they're very consistent with what the rest of the national rail industry does in terms of driver working arrangements.”
The RMT was seeking assurances, he said, about the operational details of the new four-day week.
The union has branded the proposed reforms as a “fake” four-day week, arguing it is compressing five days into four, and it “instructed” train drivers not to turn up for work.
However, its position has been significantly undermined by the Aslef train drivers’ union backing the changes and hailing them as offering the best working conditions on the mainline rail network.
All lines were expected to be impacted by the strikes but to varying degrees.
Services on the Jubilee Line were running close to normal at times on Monday morning.
Other lines were seeing disruption which was changing depending on the time of day.
During the strikes, no service was expected on the Circle line, Piccadilly line, the Metropolitan line between Baker Street and Aldgate, and the Central line between White City and Liverpool Street.
