What Are Your Tube Staff Being Taught?

The passenger was seen to “surf” the middle rail of the downward escalator at North Greenwich Underground Station yesterday morning before clattering into a smartly dressed woman in her seventies. She was left lying face down on the floor while the younger woman suffered a deep gash to her wrist and hand and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

British Transport Police are investigating the incident which happened just after 7am.

It’s lucky they are, because if it was up to the Tube worker who attended, they wouldn’t be:

Paul Wolverton, 52, said: “She sent the older women flying to her knees, the escalator was stopped and the older lady was at the bottom of the escalator on all fours and could not get up she was badly hurt.

“The younger girl was crying because she had injured her hand and wrist and was bleeding, she was being comforted by her friends.

“There was an Underground worker standing over the women who could not get up.

“She was trying to calm the situation down because an eyewitness had seen what had happened and were saying that the young woman should be arrested, but the guard was saying it was an accident.”

How on earth she possibly come to that conclusion? Particularly given it’s something that TfL warn against:

TfL confirmed the incident took place. A spokeswoman added: “Safety is our top priority and pranks like this are dangerous for not only those involved but also to other customers.

“We have frequent PA announcements reminding customers to be careful when using escalators, and we also run safety campaigns throughout the year to encourage customers to take care whilst traveling on our network.”

Someone needs to be recalled for retraining.