Saturday, March 02, 2013

Tube unions defend safety of sleepy passengers




THE RMT transport union is opposing directions from London Underground to Bakerloo line drivers to drive out-of-service trains into depots and sidings without checking first that all passengers have got off the train.
This has resulted in over 3,000 passengers being carried into depots and sidings, many times more than on all other London Underground lines put together.
 On other lines, staff physically check the train is empty first. You could easily miss an announcement to get off the train, and get “overcarried” into a depot or sidings. London Underground claims that new barriers between the carriages make it impossible to escape from the train and that therefore it is safe for passengers to be accidentally taken into depots and sidings. This is not true.
 Last September, a 12-year-old boy got out of a train that had carried him into Queen’s Park depot. He wandered around on live track until he was rescued by the driver. He could easily have been killed.
Even if you do not get out of the train, you would be trapped inside it, which is distressing and dangerous.
After the Queen’s Park incident, drivers decided that they were no longer prepared to go along with London Underground’s dangerous policy. Both Tube unions – RMT and Aslef -- balloted for industrial action, and since 15th January, they have been insisting on checking that our trains are empty before we take them into sidings or depots.

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