Strikes called on Underground Night Tube

The RMT has called a series of strikes to coincide with the relaunch of Night Tube in London. Trains had been due to start running again on Friday and Saturday nights on the Central and Victoria Lines from 26 November. TfL said the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines will also return to service 'as soon as practicable', although there are 'resourcing issues' to be resolved first. But the RMT is in dispute over staffing levels on Night Tube, and claims London Underground has imposed 'unacceptable and intolerable demands on staff' which will 'wreck work life balance by bulldozing through additional night and weekend working'.

The RMT added that it has made 'every effort' to reach an agreement, but accused LUL management of failing to 'engage positively' with the union, and its members are now set to strike overnight on Fridays and Saturdays from 26 November until early on 19 December.

London Underground's director of customer service Nick Dent said: 'We are disappointed that the RMT is threatening London with this unnecessary action. The positive changes to Tube driver rosters have provided greater flexibility for drivers as well as permanent work and job certainty, something welcomed by all other unions. We have been meeting with the RMT for a number of months through ACAS to try and resolve their issues and we remain open to talking further.'

Trains return to blocked Salisbury lines next week

Trains will start running again from Salisbury to Andover and Romsey on 16 November. The railway east of Salisbury station has been blocked following a collision between two trains almost two weeks ago, which the RAIB said was caused by lack of rail adhesion.

In a joint statement Network Rail, South Western Railway and Great Western Railway said repair works are set to be complete by Monday, with train services resuming the following day. Network Rail will spend a full day using its 'leaf-busting' Rail Head Treatment Trains to jet wash the rails free of any debris or leaf mulch. A series of test trains will also run on the repaired infrastructure before passenger services begin on Tuesday morning.