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Commuters hit with double whammy of Piccadilly Line strike and District Line delays

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  Commuters have been hit with a double whammy of travel disruption this morning as severe delays hit the Distrct Line between Upminster and Tower Hill and the strike on the Piccadilly Line entered its second day.

Transport for London (TfL) said tickets would be valid on London buses for those using the District Line:

https://twitter.com/TfLTravelAlerts/status/1045235046561587201

Piccadilly Line train drivers that are members of the RMT rail union said they are striking because of an "aggressive and bullying management culture" and a breakdown in industrial relations.

Read more: Piccadilly Line suffers severe delays as drivers begin three-day strike

This morning RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "The shutdown of the service today is entirely down to a London Underground management hell-bent on confrontation regardless of the impact on nearly 800,000 passengers a day on the main tube artery out to Heathrow Airport.

"The attitude of tube managers on the Piccadilly Line has been deliberately provocative and obstructive and it is that stance, including the back-tracking on operational, staffing and safety improvements agreed after previous rounds of action on the line, that led to the current dispute in the first place.

"The ball is firmly in management's court now but our members are sick and tired of being mugged off with bogus promises of improvements to the current dire industrial relations climate that never actually materialise. That position needs to change."

Nigel Holness, TfL’s director of network operations for London Underground, said: “I apologise to customers who are suffering three days of disruption for no good reason. The RMT unilaterally ended discussions at Acas on Tuesday and made no attempt to engage with us to try and resolve this dispute. Despite our request to meet the RMT at Acas today they haven’t agreed to talks. We continue to uphold all our commitments following discussions with the RMT earlier in the year and its claims that no progress has been made are totally untrue.”

Former trade minister Greg Hands tweeted:

Read more: All aboard the blame train as report reveals failures in rail chaos