Tube strikes cancelled – but Londoners are set to be hit by two more 24-hour walkouts in June

The decision will spare hundreds of thousands of Underground users more travel misery.

A union spokesperson said: “At the 11th hour the employer has shifted its position allowing us to further explore our members concerns around the imposition of new rosters, fatigue and safety issues.

“The dispute is not over and more strike action will follow if we fail to make sufficient progress.”

The RMT also brought forward planned strikes in June, which were due to take place on the 16 and 18.

They are now set to start on Tuesday June 2 and Thursday June 4.

London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan welcomed the cancelling of this week’s walkouts.

He posted on X: “Great news for Londoners, visitors and businesses across London: the planned Tube strikes this week have been suspended.

“Positive to see talks continue to find a resolution to this dispute.”

Nick Dent, director of customer operations for London Underground, stressed that the four-day week was voluntary and aimed to “improve both work-life balance for drivers and the reliability of service for customers”.

He added: “We look forward to further discussions on the implementation of these proposals with all of our trade unions.”

The RMT had emphasised that its members saw the offer from Transport for London as a ‘fake four-day week’ that was in effect five days’ work compressed into four.

Criticising the details of the proposals, an RMT spokesman had said: “This includes reduced flexibility over shift patterns, with the potential for only 24 hours notice of what shifts drivers will be doing, serious concerns from our members about shift length and resulting fatigue impacting safety in a safety-critical role like Tube driving.”

But the RMT’s stance was undermined by the Aslef train drivers’ union which strongly backed the four-day week plan.

In a memo to members, Finn Brennan, Aslef’s district organiser for the Tube, laid out the benefits of the TfL offer which he explained included 35 more days away from work and average weekly rostered hours being reduced from 36 to 34.

The planned strikes this week were part of wider industrial action including walkouts last month.

But services on the Underground were not impacted as much as feared by the RMT strikes in April.

While many trains were more crowded, services ran on most lines.

Others worked from home rather than trying to get to their office or other work place in the capital.

Shadow Transport Secretary Richard Holden criticised the RMT as “militant” and seeking to hold London “to ransom”.

He said: “While even Aslef has accepted a deal, the RMT – which has supported Labour MPs to the tune of hundreds of throusands of pounds – is still threatening disruption for millions of passengers.”