Boris Johnson has been asked to boost protection for Tube workers after official figures showed a 44% increase in assaults since 2009.
According to figures provided to the TfL board, the number of incidents rose from 1,917 in 2009/10 to 2,753 in 2013/14.
Labour at City Hall say the increase shows plans to axe 900 jobs as part of the closure of ticket offices could “leave the remaining staff in ticket halls and on the platform more vulnerable to assault.”
The party’s transport spokesperson, Val Shawcross AM, said: “What nobody wants to see is staff left feeling unsafe on quiet platforms and in empty ticket halls.
“We need to see immediate action from the Mayor to get to the bottom of this worrying rise in assaults and to show that his station staff cuts aren’t going to leave workers more vulnerable in the future.”
Mrs Shawcross said plans to run the Tube 24 hours at weekends gave rise to “serious worries about TfL’s approach to staffing.”
She added: “With alcohol a proven factor in a significant number of assaults, we have to ask how safe employees will feel being the sole member of staff in a station at 3am and dealing with crowds of passengers coming back from a night on the town.”
However Tube bosses insist physical attacks on the network are falling and say the increase in incidents reported to the board is down to a campaign to encourage staff “to report any type of assault, including verbal.”
Nick Brown, LU’s Chief Operating Officer, added: “When we introduce the Night Tube, all stations will remain staffed and controlled at all times when services are running and our hundreds of staff will be backed by a Police presence.
“There are around 700 uniformed British Transport Police personnel on the Tube and DLR, part of the 2,500 strong group of officers who work across the TfL transport network keeping customers safe.
“The Underground network is also covered by our extensive network of 12,000 CCTV cameras.”
Peter Smith says
As an ex LUL employee I would not feel safe being the only staff member on a station in the early hours with a group of rowdy drunken people to control. If the increase in the number of reported assaults are verbal do the upper management of LUL not consider this type of assault when faced with a drunken mob at least unnerving if not downright frightening. Big deal there is CCTV, that doesn’t PROTECT you when you are being beaten to a pulp or worse still stabbed. BTP will come to you aid but how long will it take them to get to you, you can bleed out in a few minutes , will there always be officers just a couple of minutes away or less. Yes these arevery worse case senarios and while it may never have happened before I pity whoever will be the first case. If it can happen IT WILL. Will LULs upper managment do a lone shift on a busy central area station on a Friday or Saturday night. Would that idiot Boris do a shift. Dont hold your breath people.
John says
Just recently a member of staff had his face slashed in an unprovoked attack at Lancaster gate. The threat to staff is real and will increase with night running.