Staff criticise Underground's 'fingers crossed' attitude to safety

2 February 2012

Staff criticise London Underground's sometimes ‘fingers crossed attitude' to health and safety in a special one hour programme to be aired tonight on Channel 4. 

Station staff also discuss the fallout from misleading ‘good service' information  announcements, made  in order to maintain London Underground targets.

Other areas covered by the programme: 

• Maintenance and station staff reveal their dissatisfaction with London Underground procedures to store dead bodies in inappropriate place such as cleaning cupboards, bin rooms and store cupboards rooms while awaiting the undertaker to collect them.
• There has been a 44 per cent rise in threats to London Underground employees in 2010/11. Frontline staff say they are feeling increasingly vulnerable to abuse and attacks by members of the public as a result of reduction to staffing levels.
• Drivers' and maintenance workers' anxiety about the state of London Underground track and are concerned about London Underground's plans to reduce patrol schedules as part of its drive to reduce costs, both for track and signaling.

 

Confessions from the Underground (Thursday 2nd February at 10pm on Channel 4) provides a rare glimpse into the depths of the iconic Tube network that passengers don't see, as workers reveal the dilemmas and pressures that they must reconcile to keep this hugely complex and strained system running.

To protect their identity and to allow them to speak openly the programme  uses actors to voice the precise words of the Underground workers - train drivers, maintenance workers, station staff and controllers. 

 

Rise in abuse and attacks on frontline staff

While the number of passengers keeps on increasing, the number of frontline staff has decreased.  In the last two years almost 800 station staff and managerial jobs have been cut from 260 stations across the network. 

Moreover, London Underground reports that violent incidents in 2010/11 were up by nearly 20 per cent and threats to staff were up by 44 per cent.  Station staff told the programme that fewer frontline staff has left them feeling increasingly vulnerable to abuse and attacks. 

"I think we're seriously understaffed.  It can leave you feeling very vulnerable." - male station staff

"Well when I first started I really didn't feel overwhelmed because we were working in two's and three's but most of the time I find I'm working by myself now" - female, station staff.

"This pack mentality develops [among commuters] very quickly and you're just one person so if you're a little fox and there's a pack of hounds around you" - male, station staff.    

London Underground says:  "We take violence against staff very seriously.  We work closely with British transport police and seek the strongest possible penalties for those guilty of such abuse.  All stations are adequately staffed and retaining high safety standards remains a top priority.

 

When is a good service a good service?

Throughout the day station staff are required to provide service updates to commuters.   Staff told the programme that their stations often give out what they describe as misleading and false information as to passengers in order to maintain London Underground targets. 

Stations regularly inform commuters that there is a ‘good service' when locally they know there are delays.    This is because a ‘good service' is defined by the Underground's National Operations Centre (NOC) and is based on average delays across each line. 

"So when I hear officially, that the service is a good service I have to say it's a good service, even if it's not a good service.  It makes me feel bad.  But I can't tell the customer the truth." - female, station staff

"At stations you get this thing which says there is a good service on blah, blah, blah Underground and as drivers, we know that this is a load of crap."  - male, tube driver

"It happens a lot, for example service is rubbish. There's an incident somewhere, but you see on the station boards or you hear on a tannoy, connected to the NOC, that service is good. But you know at your station, service is crap" - female, station staff  

"It incenses people, because they are being lied to.  And they get frustrated and they take it out on the person they can see, me" - female, station staff

"Well we have targets that we have to meet.  These people come in, they're called Mystery Shoppers and they score you if you make these announcements" - male, station staff.

In response:  "London Underground says: There are no targets for good service announcements.  announcements are driven by a number of key factors such as gaps in service, suspensions and slow-moving trains.  Using the NOC system means staff are under no pressure regarding service information and ensures that information is consistent across the network."

 

Underground procedures to store dead bodies is inappropriate

Maintenance and station staff reveal their dissatisfaction with London Underground procedures to deal with dead bodies resulting from suicide jumps.

Around 50 people attempt suicide on the London Underground every year, one a week. Staff express their feelings about procedures to store dead bodies in inappropriate place such as cleaning cupboards, bin  rooms and store rooms while awaiting the undertaker to collect them.

"As far as I understand it, London Ambulance services have limited resources and a few years back they stopped taking anybody who's deceased into their ambulances back to hospitals.  Sometimes there's a delay, it might be half an hour, maybe even two hours and then we're left with a body on the platform and disturbingly for us, we have to find a place to put a body.  Unfortunately, we had to use, at Stratford, a bin store outside in the car park, you know the big, massive, industrial bins.  Putting someone's body in there, not in the bin, in with the bins, it's not really respectful.  However, do I keep the station shut until the coroner and his guys gets there and inconvenience the rest of London?" - Male, Emergency Response Unit.  

"I know that we've got a store cupboard that we put the bodies in and there is one station supervisor who will not go in that cupboard at all" -  female, station staff

"We've even heard of situations where cleaners come down to get a mop or a bucket or whatever and there's some poor unfortunate person's body in there" - male, Emergency Response Unit.  

London Underground say: "Following agreed procedures, a body may be moved to a secure room within the station to await collection by undertakers.  We believe our staff do a fantastic job in responding to such difficult circumstances and they are offered counselling support, if necessary."

 

Overcowding

London Underground carries more than a billion passengers a year and the numbers just keep growing.  There were 42 million more journeys in 2010 than in the previous year.  Some staff are critical of London Underground's ‘fingers crossed attitude' to overcrowding and health and safety. 

"There was this one time, when it was just me and this other guy, two members of staff trying to deal with 5,000 passengers, all trying to get through this one particular gate line.  And you're under pressure you know to keep the station open" - male station staff.    He added:  "I think my ultimate fear is that there's gonna be too many people down on the platform and I'm gonna be sat in front of a judge and he's gonna be saying, how come you let so many people go down there?"  male station staff. 

"Something will happen.  It'll be a crush incident, that's my prediction."  - female, station staff

"It's a fingers crossed attitude. We're just running on good luck" - female, station supervisor

 

Backlog of track repairs

‘Confessions from the Underground' also investigates drivers' and maintenance workers' anxiety about the state of London Underground track.

Parts of the London Underground date back to 1860's and despite billions of pounds  of investment, workers tell the programme that they are worried about the backlog of repairs and refer to Walk Out Reports that show that repairs with priorities of 6 or 7 remain unfixed for several months. 

"Every single day you notice that the train is having a rough ride through certain sections and it's scary.  I mean the train is jumping around all over the place" - male, tube driver.

We see things like eight defective timbers, sleepers, which is about 15 to 20 foot of track which isn't up to standard so you would expect it to be something that would be done right away.  Well the one I'm looking at was reported in June last year and it still hasn't been done in February of this year." male, tube driver.

"I think derailments are a worry for every single driver, every single day.  Where a few years ago I would have put money on it happening between Baron's Court and Acton Town, but now I would imagine it happening somewhere within a tunnel" - male, tube driver.

 

Concerns about plans to reduce maintenance patrol schedules

The programme also features maintenance workers expressing concern about London Underground's plans to reduce certain patrol schedules as part of its drive to reduce costs, both for track and signaling. Workers say that they fear safety faults will not be picked up in time.

"And they wanna change patrolling from twice a week, to once a week.  I don't think it's safe.  I don't think it'll be safe at all because anything can happen. A joint or a broken plate won't be patrolled again for another six or seven days and a lot can happen" -  male, track maintenance. 

Train stops, that's the automatic train protection that stops the train, we maintain that every 12 weeks.  They wanna knock that to every 24 weeks, if not 26.  We see it as dangerous. It's one of the main safety features within the signalling system on the railway today.  It's a safety issue for the travelling public" - male, signal engineer

London Underground says:   "All track is maintained to exacting standards which are the highest in the rail industry.  Priority is given to rails in the poorest condition and when repair timescales cannot be achieved, mitigating measures can be applied using the TANC process.  Such as restricting speed and frequency of trains over a section of track to extend its working life.  London Underground has lengthened basic inspection frequencies on new track which requires far less maintenance."

 

Notes to Editors

Confessions from the Underground - Channel 4 on Thursday 2nd February  2012, 10pm

Join in the Twitter conversation using #Underground. 

For more information:  http://www.channel4.com/programmes/confessions-from-the-underground