RISING CRIME AND FEAR ON LONDON TUBE

5 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2022 :: RMTnews N ew data from Transport for London has shown a rising rate of crime and anti- social behaviour and increasing passenger fear on the capital’s transport system. RMT has revealed that TfL’s Customer Service and Operational Performance Panel were shown data indicating that: • The rate of recorded crime and anti-social behaviour is up across all modes of TfL transport by 40 per cent from 8.4 per million passenger journeys to 11.8 per million passenger journeys. • One third of passengers surveyed said they felt worried on public transport in the last three months and nine per cent of Londoners were completely or temporarily deterred from using public transport due to a worrying incident. • The level of hate crime on the Underground has nearly returned to Pre- Pandemic levels even though passenger numbers are still down. Around 20 per cent of hate crimes are against London Underground staff. In November last year, the same panel heard a report showing that passenger confidence depended on stations and trains being clean, orderly and safe with highly visible staff ensuring effective crowd management. Yet London Underground has announced that it intended to cut around 600 station staff jobs. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that TfL knew that what London Underground was doing was wrong. “They have the data that shows passengers want more staff, not less and they now have the data showing that crime and anti-social behaviour rates are up and passenger confidence is shaken. If they persist with these cuts it will further erode passenger confidence in tube travel and we risk seeing London Underground descending into a spiral of decline that will cause immeasurable damage to London. “TfL’s Board and the Mayor need to show some spine, do what they know is right and step in to stop these cuts and this government need to stop partying while London crumbles and provide the funds we need to get out of this growing crisis,” he said. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch told protesters that the demonstration made clear that attacks on pensions, pay freezes and threats to services and jobs was not an acceptable way to treat London’s transport workers who have kept the City moving through a global pandemic. He called on the Mayor Sadiq Khan to stand up and fight for the Capital's transport services as the full scale of the cuts being demanded by the government begins to emerge. The union also accused the government of deliberately engineering and provoking a fight with unions over jobs, services and pensions and of cynically using the COVID pandemic as a cover to unleash the most savage cuts package in modern times. "It is clear from what we know that the government- driven wrecking ball would reduce transport in London to rubble. We will fight that assault with every tool at our disposal if ministers don't wake up and see sense. "We are calling on the Mayor and the people of London to stand with the transport workforce in a campaign to secure the funding our services need. It would be a scandal if COVID was used as a cover to drive through an unprecedented cuts package when we need to be building back for the future,” he said. RMT has written to London Mayor Sadiq Khan calling on him to scrap Transport for London’s £12 million executive bonus scheme which will see senior staff rewarded for their success in delivering the government’s attack on heroic keyworkers’ pay, jobs and pensions. “Our members, like TfL’s executives, have been required to ‘perform at the highest possible level to overcome the challenges to deliver their goals’. But they are expected to do this for no reward, contemplating a future where their livelihoods are being threatened and their retirements thrown into precariousness. “What makes TfL senior management so special – a breed apart – that they can only ‘perform at the highest possible levels if they are given a bonus? How much more scandalous if their challenge is to attack the livelihoods of those who are expected to perform at the highest levels effectively for nothing?” he asked. en fig RISING CRIME AND FEAR ON LONDON TUBE