Tube bosses: Stop 'needless' checks

Bakerloo line train drivers have been taking co-ordinated action to stop passengers ending up in sidings after trains reach their destinations.

For the past two weeks drivers have been checking that all trains are empty at the end of the line after LU managers ordered station staff to stop making the checks.

The RMT union said a staggering 3,000 passengers found themselves stuck on Bakerloo line trains last year.

They even revealed that one driver had to act quickly to ensure a 12-year-old boy didn't try to climb out of the train and onto electrified tracks.

The drivers' checks have ensured passenger safety but caused delays which LU's chief operating officer Howard Collins blamed on "needless action."

Defending the new arrangements he said: "We have procedures approved by the rail regulator to ensure customers leave trains beforehand, and on occasions when customers are carried into sidings they are safely escorted back to a station."

But RMT general secretary Bob Crow hit back at Mr Collins, saying: "It is bad enough that LU seems happy with 3,000 overcarries on the Bakerloo in the last year compared with just 94 on nine other lines put together, but to lie through their teeth when our members have to take action to keep the public safe is despicable."