London Underground services will be disrupted every weekend until just before the Olympics in 2012, a report has claimed.
Commuters have faced reductions in services for years because of weekend engineering work to upgrade Tube lines, including last weekend when the entire Circle Line was suspended and others were part-suspended.
The Evening Standard newspaper said it had obtained figures under the Freedom of Information Act showing that track, signal and construction work would close or part-suspend many Tube lines every weekend until just before the Olympics, which will start on July 27 2012.
The figures also showed that the last time LU ran a full weekend service was 29/30 December 2007.
When a full service resumes on Saturday July 21 2012, there will have been a gap of three years and eight months since Tube bosses last ran a full weekend network, said the Standard.
The figures were published following weeks of delays and disruption because of problems including signal, train and power failures.
An LU spokesman said: "LU is carrying out the biggest upgrade in the Tube's history while carrying record numbers of passengers, over one billion last year. There is not enough time to do this work during the four hours each night when trains do not run and as a result much of this work must take place at weekends.
"We completely understand the frustration passengers feel when confronted by closures, but to replace track there is no option but to close the railway. Under TfL nearly 200km (125 miles) of track has been replaced, delivering smoother, more reliable journeys.
Meanwhile, hundreds of London Underground workers are to be balloted for strikes in a row over allegations of victimisation against two union members, threatening fresh disruption on the Tube.
The Rail Maritime and Transport union said several hundred workers would vote in the next few weeks on whether to take industrial action in support of the two men.
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