Tube Union RMT today called on London Mayor Boris Johnson to make an urgent statement on the impact of the ConDem government cuts on the tube upgrade programme as rumours gathered ground that the works on the Northern Line will not be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics.

RMT has already warned that the emergency buy out of Tube Lines by TfL has left hundreds of jobs at risk as the tube moves in to a new era of heavy duty cuts, compounded by the latest demands of the new Government to strip more than a £100 million of additional cost reductions out of the TfL budget. RMT is currently balloting Tube Lines staff for industrial action over threatened job losses and attacks on pay and working conditions.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

"Londoners need to wake up and realise just what's at stake as the poisonous cocktail of existing financial chaos at TfL, combined with an all out cuts assault from the new Government, threatens to rip apart the tube upgrade programme and kick other developments like Crossrail back into the long grass.

"This weekend the Transport Minister refused to give assurances that Crossrail would be completed in full and by the target date of 2017. There are now briefings coming out that the Northern Line upgrade will not be completed in time for the 2012 Olympics. That will be a massive embarrassment for Boris Johnson and David Cameron as visitors to London arrive to find tube platforms looking like something out of the Blitz.

"It's our member’s jobs at Tube Lines and on the stations and platforms that are currently under immediate threat with dire safety implications for the travelling public. We have no alternative but to press on with plans for action."