HOPES of renewed peace talks to resolve the London Underground jobs dispute have been dashed, after Transport for London said the unions had refused to return to Acas.

Meanwhile, the RMT union has announced fresh restrictions on what its members will do as the next 24-hour strike approaches.

Discussions on Wednesday broke up without agreement after six hours of talks with the RMT and TSSA. There has already been one 24-hour strike, on 6-7 September, during which only about 40% of trains ran and many stations remained closed.

TfL had been hoping to return to Acas today (Friday), after Wednesday's fruitless meeting.

London Underground chief operating officer Howard Collins said: “We were, once again, faced with the demand that we withdraw our staffing plans before talks can progress. With some ticket offices now selling fewer than ten tickets per hour London Underground needs to change, and we cannot agree to this demand. Despite their claims that this dispute is about safety, the unions’ leaderships have not even tried to make any case to us that these proposals impact upon safety standards.

“We were hoping that the union leaderships would come to ACAS today to try to avoid further disruption to Londoners. Unfortunately they have refused – showing that, for all their words, they were not serious about averting another strike. We remain ready and willing to discuss any aspect of our proposals, including any specific safety concerns, and we hope the leaderships of the TSSA and RMT will return to talks, call off this pointless industrial action and stop threatening Londoners with disruption.”

“Our plans have no impact on safety standards and we have given a cast-iron guarantee that these plans involve no compulsory redundancies or loss of earnings.”

The RMT has announced details of the action its members are being instructed to take on 3-4 October, when a second 24-hour walkout is scheduled.

The union’s general secretary Bob Crow said: “We have made every effort to resolve this dispute over safe staffing levels through negotiations and continue to pursue a settlement that will protect the safety of both staff and passengers and the quality of service to Tube users at all times and at all locations. Following talks at Acas it is now up to London Underground management to come back to us with a positive response.

“Our members have shown their determination to defend the ticket offices, safety-critical station jobs and the whole future of a safe and secure tube network and we have announced the additional action to push that campaign forwards.

“The Mayor and his transport officials cannot simply wash their hands of this dispute. Boris Johnson has said that he will stand up and fight for London against the ConDem government cuts – that’s exactly what RMT and TSSA members are doing on the tube right in the Mayor’s own back yard. Rather than attacking us the Mayor, as Chair of TfL, should instruct his officials to put safety first and withdraw the cuts that they are bulldozing through without agreement and with complete disregard for the consequences.”

As well as striking, union members will refuse to handle £5 basic Oyster top-ups or deputise for higher-graded colleagues. An indefinite overtime ban is also continuing.