From Tuesday 15th of January 2013 until further notice, RMT and ASLEF train drivers are taking action for safety.
Drivers in both Aslef and RMT unions are taking action, not over pay or hours, but because serious safety concerns have been ignored by London Underground management.
Since the introduction of a new procedure last year to clear trains of passengers before going out of service there have been thousands of incidents in which passengers have been ‘over-carried’ into sidings.

Before the new arrangement, all carriages would be checked by station staff before moving into sidings at Queens Park, Stonebridge Park and Harrow & Wealdstone depots, but the new procedure only requires a driver to make an announcement, flash the car lights on and off, shut the doors and go.
The result has been an alarming increase in over-carrying on the Bakerloo in the last year – some 3,362 incidents compared with just 94 on all other lines put together.

That is not only appalling customer service, but dangerous and potentially life-threatening.

To take just one of many examples, last October a twelve-year-old boy over-rode into the sidings at Queens Park and managed to get off the train through the inter-connecting car doors. But for the swift action of the train driver the boy could have been electrocuted or hit by a moving train.
London Underground is putting cost-cutting ahead of public safety and has left drivers with no alternative but to check for themselves that trains are clear of passengers, and this will inevitably slow the service down.

We are sorry if that causes you inconvenience, but we hope you will understand that we are taking this action because we take your safety very seriously.

How YOU can help

You can help us to restore safe de-training on the Bakerloo line – please email LU’s Head of Safety Operation Jill Collis at jill.collis@tube.tfl.gov.uk to insist that safety must come first.
Thank you
Attached is the RMT ASLEF flyer for the public.