A few years ago, I found myself alone in a southbound tube train with only a
bulky item of baggage left near the doors for company. Thinking it was my duty
to draw attention to this "suspect package", and being about to get out at the
next station anyway, I followed the LU instructions to report this item to a
member of staff. As there was nobody on the platform, the first person I saw
was the man on the ticket barrier. Of course by then the train would have been
well on its way.
AFAIK the bag was harmless, as I heard no more about it. But I had done my
duty.
Last night I heard on the news that LU "no longer needs" so many staff, and
that people will no longer be needed in ticket offices or or on the barriers. I
suspect that either the news teams know this is crap, but don't care, or that
probably like some of the management, they don't use public transport very
often. Hence they won't have witnessed the patient way some staff have to deal
with sometimes reasonable and sometimes quite stupid questions. They won't have
experienced the bewilderment and frustration of waiting for information on an
apparently deserted station. Nor will they have seen the Greater London Schools
Athletics teams vaulting gracefully over the automatic ticket barriers.
But what I would like to know is the procedure for reporting suspect packages
when one arrives at completely unpersonned stations. (And there I thinking we
were having too many "terrorist alerts"! )
I'd also be interested to hear the mayor's ideas on how removing staff will
square with his past pledges to make stations safer for women and elderly
passengers.
And talking of which, if LU wants to redeploy staff, how about putting guards
on trains to deter vandalism and anti-social behaviour? It might reassure the
rest of the travelling public that someone actually cares, and encourage us to
stand up to the yobboes..