Services on two-thirds of the Tube network remained at a standstill at the start of the morning rush hour and were still not back to normal by the evening exodus.

There were long queues for buses and taxis again because of the knock-on effect of the walkout by 2,300 members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union in a row linked to the collapse of maintenance giant Metronet.

London Underground said it hoped that all services would be running by Thursday.

Transport for London said that guarantees given to the RMT were the same as those given to two other Tube unions who called off their threatened strike earlier in the week.

The RMT called off the strike after talks with TfL on Tuesday.

"Only the RMT can explain why guarantees that were unacceptable on Monday were accepted last night.

"Our priority now is to restore a full service for Londoners as speedily as possible, but obviously it will take time for us to bring the system back to full capacity," said a spokesman.

The RMT said that the talks had yielded progress on the issues involved in the dispute, although it warned that a three day strike planned to start next Monday evening remained, pending the outcome of further meetings in the next few days.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association announced that it has secured agreement on an overall peace deal to end its dispute with Metronet.