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London commuters will have to prepare themselves for three days of transport difficulties after the announcement of a strike by maintenance workers on the underground network.

The Rail & Maritime Union (RMT) said today that more than 2,000 engineers will go on strike from 18:00 BST this Sunday.

It comes after talks between the union and Metronet, which is responsible for maintaining nine of the 12 tube lines, broke down over the issue of transferring about 250 staff to train-maker Bombardier Transportation.

Following the three-day strike, an "indefinite overtime ban" will begin at 18:00 BST next Sunday (April 22nd), the RMT added.

"We have had a series of meetings with Metronet this week but we have been unable to reach agreement," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.

"It is a great pity that after we suspended the overtime ban scheduled for this week to enable those talks to take place, the company has not taken the extra step towards us that could have resolved the dispute.

"As a result the 72-hour strike scheduled for Sunday remains on, and the executive has today also given notice of an indefinite overtime ban to commence the following Sunday at 18:00."

Metronet has called for continued negotiations to resolve the dispute and claims the plans to transfer staff is part of a process to "introduce new trains and improve reliability".

"In recent weeks we have worked hard to reach an agreement with the unions," Mark Cooper, Metronet's senior vice president of asset performance, said.

"We remain available for talks at any time. The planned strike action will lead to disruption for the three million people who use the tube every day. It is unnecessary and unwarranted."

According to Metronet, Bombardier will be supplying and maintaining 237 new trains for the Metropolitan; District; Circle; Hammersmith and City; and Victoria lines from 2009.

Following discussions with unions, the number of staff being transferred has already been reduced from 700, the firm says.

"At the request of the unions we have reduced the numbers of staff that will transfer to a minimum – but we owe it to the travelling public to push ahead with plans that will improve services," Mr Cooper said.