Transport for London have heralded a victory over the unions after announcing up to 40 per cent of Underground services operating by the end of the working day.

In time for evening rush hour the transport body said trains were running on 10 of 11 London tube lines.

Key stations King’s Cross and Paddington were reopened and the Metropolitan Line was operating a full service westbound from Moorgate by 5.30pm.

The Bakerloo line was operating between Queen’s Park and Elephant and Castle but Edgware Road and Maida Vale remain closed.

The Northern Line is operating a service but Angel, Chalk Farm, Tufnell Park and Hampstead stations remained closed at 6pm.

For other north Londoners there was little relief as

the Jubilee line still remained closed north of Waterloo at 6pm.

Howard Collins, Chief Operating Officer of London Underground, was still buoyant about TfL’s achievements.

“The unions have once again failed to bring London to a halt,” he said.

“It is incredible that the two union leaderships have pursued this action when they have been given cast-iron assurances that the staffing changes we are making come with no compulsory redundancies or loss of earnings, that every station that currently has a ticket office will retain one, and that every station will remain staffed at all times. They should now see sense, and call off this pointless industrial action.”

The strike was officially due to end at 7pm but services may still experience disruption for the rest of the evening.