Thursday 6 April 2017

One London Underground Station Closed Each Day Because Of Lack Of Staff

London Underground

A Freedom of Information request by the BBC shows the number of station workers fell by 777 – or 13 per cent – in 2016.

Temple station closed the most times – 25 times and a total of 57 hours between January and December – while Canary Wharf and Holland Park both closed 17 times.

There were 360 closures in total in 2016 across the Tube network, generally caused by staff being moved "to allow another priority station to open or remain open".

The largest number of closures - 149 - came in December alone, while a total of 66 per cent of closures happened between midnight and 6am.

Top five most closed stations in 2016

  • Temple - 25 closures

  • Canary Wharf - 17 closures

  • Holland Park - 17 closures

  • Covent Garden - 13 closures

  • Goodge Street - 13 closures

In 2013, Transport for London announced up to 750 job cuts as part of its Fit for the Future strategy, resulting in a number of trade union strikes.

Brian Woodhead, Operations Director for London Underground, said in a statement: “We roster staff to work at all times when trains are running, however on the occasions that a member of staff is taken ill or is otherwise unavailable, we sometimes have to close stations for short periods of time while we send other staff to the station.

“Last year, we made changes to the staffing of our stations to put more people in areas where they could best assist customers, rather than in underused ticket offices.

"The Mayor ordered a review of this new approach, and as a result we are recruiting 325 new, additional roles this year.

“This means that we will be introducing at least 650 new station staff members to the Underground this year, to ensure our customers feel safe, fully supported and able to access the right assistance at all times.”

A spokesman added that 46 per cent of last year's the closures came in 39 days of industrial action which has since been resolved.


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