Safety fears over unstaffed stations increased today as it was revealed that a passenger was knocked unconscious, suffering severe head injuries and a broken arm after falling down stairs.
In the incident on August 3 at unstaffed Ickenham station on the Metropolitan line, the man was spotted by a train driver who raised the alarm, but it took nearly 30 minutes before staff from other stations arrived.
By then, the man, who was “bleeding profusely”, was being helped by two members of the public and two off-duty police officers before he was taken to hospital. In a second incident, on June 5, a driver at Preston Park reported a passenger going between the train and the platform edge. He returned to the platform before boarding a train.
The RMT union, which today released details of the incidents, said unstaffed stations was a “growing crisis”.
Mick Cash, the RMT leader, said: “It simply defies belief that London Underground still woefully and recklessly run services on the world’s busiest railway through stations that have no staff.”
The LU report on the Ickenham incident said CCTV showed a passenger running to a station office window “but no staff on duty”. “A review of staffing levels should be conducted as to why we are continuously having unstaffed stations on the north end of the Metropolitan line.”
Nigel Holness, LU Director of Network Operations, said: “Safety is our top priority and fortunately these types of incidents are rare. Following a review of staffing levels we are now in the process of putting 325 additional new staff members in our stations.
"We will continue to monitor the level of staffing across our network to ensure that our customers are kept safe and receive the best possible level of service and assistance at all times."
