The RMT spokesman is talking rubbish.
Firstly, which Tube lines are ‘Victorian’?
Doesnt he realise that there have been an awful lot of improvements since they were built, and have been subject to a massive upgrade over the previous 5 years (ok, it’s a rhetorical question).
Automatic operation equipment is being installed on many other lines over the next few years, the Contracts have been signed for the signalling, and it can be used whenever LU decide to implement it, but the big stumbling block is the extra equipment required on the trains themselves, which is quite expensive, and not a good investment if the trains are going to be replaced.
The ‘New tube trains for London’ will be automatic operation ready. This does not mean ‘no drivers’, just that they will be limited in their input – keeping all trains at a steady speed, braking/accelerating at equal speeds to each other train gives a far more robust service pattern, and something that cannot be done reliably by human drivers, so computers will take over the starting/stopping/speed moderation duties. Then when a train is meant to be every 5 minutes from platform 1, it will be, not as now where 1 comes, then 10 minutes elapses, and 2 come along within 2 minutes of each other.