About 4,000 London Underground (LU) station staff were set to join the strike, which will last until 18:30 GMT Monday, but it was reported that only three stations were closed on Sunday evening.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union staged their second walk-out in a row over staffing levels and new rosters following their first industrious action staged at the New Year's Eve.

Many employees in London are expected to be returning to work for the first time since before Christmas and are set to be hit bysome station closures.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the only effect of the industrial action would be to inconvenience the public and lose pay for those on strike, adding that a deal was reached more than a year ago to give station staff a 35-hour week and 52 days leave and that he was totally committed to implementing it.

But the RMT union accused LU of using untrained staff to keep stations open - something LU strongly denies, warning that the dispute could lead to a complete closure of the network which is used by up to three million people a day.

During the previous strike, from noon on New Year's Eve, LU said only 35 of the tube network's 275 stations were closed because of a lack of staff.