TUBE UNION RMT today revealed leaked details of an internal London Underground management report titled “Minimum Staffing Levels” which the union is warning would lead to the loss of hundreds of station jobs, hacking back to the absolute bare bones staffing levels agreed in the aftermath of the Kings Cross fire in 1987. Even Victoria, the busiest station on the underground with 76 million passengers, could see its current twelve staff cut to just two during “degraded” operation.

The latest leaked tube management proposals follow on from documents passed to RMT late last year setting out a plan to close ticket offices at 144 stations with the loss of 1200 jobs. The “Minimum Staffing Levels” report would axe posts at sub-surface tube stations with 70 out of 116 stations reduced to a minimum level of just two staff with the remaining 46 stations still to be assessed. RMT are warning that stations across the “open section” of the network are also set for wholesale de-staffing.

Minimum staffing levels were first introduced after the King's Cross fire in 1987 that claimed 31 lives. After much debate in Parliament and London Transport, legislation was passed in 1989 that introduced stringent and wide-ranging fire-fighting and precaution measures with an estimated increase in staffing levels by 1,700 . RMT recently successfully defended these 1989 Regulations against LU and TfL plans to scrap them.

The effectiveness of these Regulations couldn't be better proven by the record on LU since the 1987 fire. During the London bombings in July 2005 the measures introduced in 1989 were critical in ensuring that no fires compounded the tragedy on that day. Staff on the day were described as “heroes” for the role they played in saving lives and getting London moving again.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“Despite all the election promises from Boris Johnson that he would not cut back on operational staff and ticket offices the truth of what is going on behind closed doors at LUL and TfL is starting to emerge and it is clear that the cash-saving measures under discussion would devastate tube safety.

“RMT is committed to fighting these plans and we will continue to alert the London travelling public and tube workers to the scale of the attack that is being cooked up for the Capital’s transport system in secret meetings.”