Kate Hoey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the effect on passenger safety of reducing staffing at control rooms on London Underground.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The department is confident that the changes introduced by Transport for London will not have a detrimental impact on passenger safety on the London Underground.

Not every London Underground (LU) station has a Station Control Room, as they are not a safety or security requirement at all stations. In advance of making the recent changes, LU reviewed the requirement for a Control Room at each station to determine their necessity based on individual station and staff needs.

At some locations it was decided that there was no longer a requirement for a Control Room as there were better ways to provide Control Room functionality in the station. Moving station staff into customer facing areas increases their ability to identify suspicious behaviour and to report it.