Notes 04.10.2011 21:42:33 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL Unfortunately, there is an accident waiting to happen at Underground Station in the evening rush hour

Coming down the escalators from street level tonight going to the central Line, I and several others narrowly missed a large crowd of commuters at the bottom of the escalator queuing up at the entrance to the . If someone had hesitated getting off the escalator, I dread to think of the results.

Whilst I appreciate the station is very busy at rush hour, it seems to me that commuters are not held in the ticket office area long enough. The announcement that this is done ‘for commuters safety’ is untrue is there is a potential for a pile up further down the escalator.

I await your views/feedback on this important issue that I have highlighted.

Our ref: 1009598375

Date: 10.10.2011

Dear

Thank you for contacting us about your experiences at Holborn station.

I am sorry that you were affected by the overcrowding and I understand your frustration about this. We know that travelling on the Tube is difficult during peak times and we have no interest in deliberately increasing stress. Like all our stations, Holborn has far more customers than it was originally designed for and overcrowding is an unfortunate reality at the station.

Sadly, expanding capacity on an existing station site is not a viable option. Holborn is a deep level station and to create more room would represent an impossible engineering challenge. Thus, we have had to create strategies to cope with the potential for overcrowding. At any station, if the platforms are very full, customers have to be held back from entering until the platforms are clear. Other stations where a temporary station closure is a regular occurrence during the evening peak include Victoria and Oxford Circus.

Whilst I appreciate your concerns about the potential for a major incident at the station, I can assure you that the safety of our customers is our priority at all times and all crowd control measures such as closing some of the ticket gates or restricting access to the platform are risk assessed and are in accordance with our Congestion Control Emergency Plans. In addition to this all our contingency plans for the station during this escalator work have been approved by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) and The Office of Rail Regulation. I hope this helps and your future Tube journeys are trouble free. Please contact me again if you need any help in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Clive Nwonka Customer Service Advisor Customer Service Centre

Notes 16.10.2011 11:24:51 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL Is it normal for there to be a gap of at least 14 minutes between the last two trains on a Saturday? This led to what I regard as dangerous overcrowding on the platform and in the train, particularly when there are many drunks travelling on the tube.

Our ref: 1009659551

Date: 22.10.2011

Dear

Thank you for your feedback form about the problems you had travelling on the last eastbound Central line train on the night of 15 October. I'm sorry that this happened and can imagine your frustration.

Because of a defective train at , the last train was 15 minutes late departing.

Under our Customer Charter you are entitled to a refund of the journey you make if the cause of the delay is within our control. If you could respond to this email with your postal address I'd be happy to send you a cash voucher for £2.50.

Once again I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused to you that night and hope your future journeys are trouble free. I look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Yours sincerely,

Niall O'Mahony Customer Service Advisor Customer Service Centre

Dear Mr O' Mahony,

Many thanks for getting back to me.

My address is

Best regards,

Notes 17.10.2011 11:24:35 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL On Saturday, I changed from the Piccadilly Line to the Central Line at 18:00. At the bottom of the Piccadilly line escalator, a member of staff had just closed off the middle escalator, so everyone was crowding on to the righthand up escalator. When I was nearly at the top, I saw that people were having great difficulty stepping off the escalator because of the crowd at the top. Fortunately, I was near the 'stop' button and stopped the escalator. It then took several minutes to move from there to the bottom of the upper escalators as there was a big tailback of passengers going to the Central Line. If I had not stopped the escalator and no other passenger had, there would have been a very dangerous situation and I believe people would have been crushed. There are CCTV cameras there. Were these not being monitored? If they were, why did you not contact the member who 1 minute previously had been at the bottom of the Picaddilly Line escalators to tell him to stop the escalator, I don't think you should rely on a passenger to do this.

Our ref: 1009662831

Date: 03.12.2011

Dear

Thank you for your email about your experience at Holborn station on 15 October. Please accept my apologies for the extreme delay in responding to your comments.

I’m sorry to hear of the difficulties you experienced that evening at the station and I do appreciate your concern.

The last few years has seen the number of customers being carried increase substantially. While we have increased the frequency of services on most lines over the last few years to the point where we are now running at peak capacity on most lines, demand continues to grow beyond record levels with up to 3 million customers using the service each weekday.

I have to admit to being a little concerned by your admission of stopping the escalator you were travelling on. Whilst I appreciate the perceived risk, this in itself could cause a serious safety risk to customers and I would ask that you not do this in future.

Please be assured that your safety is our top priority at all times; the station is constantly monitored by staff in our control room and if it is felt that there is any risk to customers well established procedures are in place to deal with this.

Yours sincerely,

Peri Kennedy Customer Service Advisor Customer Service Centre

Thank you for your reply. However, I am surprised that you don't want anyone to stop an escalator even when there is a serious safety risk if it continues. When I arrived at the top of the escalator, the people already there were at a standstill. It took several minutes for me to move out of the area and if the escalator had continued, perhaps a hundred more people would have been deposited in the area in that time; this would have led to severe crushing. Did you look at CCTV footage in this case? Did your control room staff really think this was a safe situation?

Our ref: 1009662831

Date: 12.12.2011

Dear

Thank you for your further email.

I'm sorry if my earlier comments appeared to dismiss your concerns; they were not intended to do so by any means.

I'm afraid that due to the amount of time passed we weren't able to view the CCTV images with regard to your comments, however I can assure you that the area is under constant surveillance by control room staff. Staff are very familiar with the issues facing customers and the challenges involved in moving people safely through this very busy station and take their commitments to safety very seriously.

Your comments have been passed to the senior manager responsible for Holborn station, she has asked me to pass on her assurances that staff are monitored to ensure that they are following correct procedure at all times.

I hope the above provides some reassurance and if I can be of assistance in future, please contact me again.

Yours sincerely,

Peri Kennedy Customer Service Advisor Customer Service Centre

Notes 07.12.2011 10:17:43 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL I emailed my complaint to [email protected] on 28.11.11 and had no reply/acknowledgement.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to make a formal complaint about utterly irresponsible and dangerous management of the running of Holborn tube station, changing from the Central Line to the Piccadilly Line towards Caledonian road.

On Saturday 26th November 2011 at approximately 6:00pm my daughter and I were travelling from Nottinghill to Caledonian Road. Changing from the Central Line at Holborn going down on the escalator towards the Piccadilly line it was very crowded. Announcements were made over the speakers for passengers to use both sides of the escalator. Half way down on the escalator it became obvious that people at the bottom were not moving away quickly enough, causing people on the escalater struggling to step off and move on. People were starting to stumble as obviously more and more people were trying to step off the still moving escalator.

This was a utterly sickening, disturbing and panicking prospect, as there was nowhere to go, being half way down on the escalator. My daughter tried to climb up onto the side but could not jump high enough, I pulled her backwards, reversing up the escalator as far as possible until we hit the bottom and got trapped between stationary people at the bottom and people coming down behind us. I managed to push us round a ledge to the right of the escalator and we succeeded in getting away from the crowd.

What is the point of any announcements when there is clearly a very dangerous situation developing? Surely the station management should have stopped the escalator immediately!!!!

I do not ever want to use this station again, in fact I'm not sure I ever want to use the London tubes again at all and I certainly have no faith in the tube management anymore. This has truly upset me and when I think about it now I get a feeling of panic and nausea, I certainly will never forget this most awful situation. I await your comments at your earliest convenience and expect answers as to why this was allowed to happen as well as what you are going to do about it in order to prevent this from happening ever again. Furthermore I expect compensation for the trauma this caused to my daughter and myself and what ruined what was supposed to be enjoyable, leisurly, sightseeing weekend in our Capital.

My daughter has an Oyster Card, but I don't know the number. If you require it I can get it for you.

Our ref: 2309633

Date: 19.12.2011

Dear

Thank you for taking the time to contact us about your experience at Holborn station on 26 November.

Firstly, I am sorry that you did not receive a response to your original correspondence. The email address you have given is not a valid email address and as such we would not have received your email.

I was sorry to hear that you and your daughter had such a unpleasant experience at Holborn station that day. I do appreciate how frightening it must have been for you both, however, please allow me to assure you that our staff in the control room use CCTV to continually monitor the levels of crowding in different parts of the station. If and when necessary, we will implement well-rehearsed crowd control measures.

When a station gets overcrowded for any reason we will stop customers from going to a place which could be unsafe. If appropriate, we will close off the entire, or parts of the station, or not stop trains at the station to enable us to effectively control customer flows. Once platforms are clear, the station will then re-open.

Escalators can become crowded like any other area in a busy station. Our unquestioned priority is safety, however, turning an escalator off in this type of situation is likely to cause a more dangerous situation as the ‘off switch’ for an escalator works as an emergency brake and customers could be caught off balance and fall. Emergency stop buttons are positions along the length of all of our escalators and if there is a fall or a customer feels in danger, they can stop the escalator.

It is usual to see most customers standing on the right and walking down on the left of an escalator. Our escalators display signs asking customers to do this and we also make suitable announcements. Unfortunately some customers ignore our signs and announcements and stand on both sides of the escalators or congregate at the bottom which can cause the type of crowding you have described.

I hope that I have assured you that we are committed to the safety of all of our customers. I hope that any future journeys you make using the Tube are stress free.

Yours sincerely,

Angharad Jennings-Slater Customer Service Advisor Customer Service Centre

Notes 10.01.2012 09:36:57 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL Good morning. For the last month or so, there has been an escalator not working at Holborn station, which has now become a huge problem. This morning, the queue for People to get out the station was all the way back to the Piccadilly Line platform endangering the safety of passengers.

With the increased costs of travel, surely the least TfL can do is ensure the safety of its passengers. This morning in my opinion, was not a safe environment, so much so that trains were forced to bypass the station.

I would like to know when the escalator will be fixed, as I have seen no signs so far this is taking place.

Many thanks

21.03.2012 14:53:50 WILKINPH01

No response sent due to time lapse.

Notes 13.01.2012 09:36:14 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL

This is the second time I have mentioned this to you without having received a reply to my earlier comments. It has been 5 weeks now since the escalator leading from the Piccadilly line has been out of service causing congestion. This station is not fit for purpose to handle the volume of passengers it is required to do. Can you please advise when this escalator is going to be repaired

Our ref: 1010075072

Date: 28.02.2012

Dear

Thank you for contacting us about the escalators at Holborn station. Please excuse the delayed response.

I’m sorry to hear about your experiences at the station .The escalator at Holborn you are referring to has now been repaired, however, a second escalator is now out of service due to a technical fault. Whilst I can offer no exact date for its repair, we are hoping that it will be back in service in the coming weeks.

Escalators are very complex in terms of their operation systems and components. The escalators of the London Underground carry more than three million passengers every day from the street to the platforms and back again; a fact that is a testament to the reliability of the system and the care taken over the maintenance of escalators . However, they may malfunction at times. The reasons can be various and they can range from a temporary technical problem to human error. However, we do our best to maintain our escalators to ensure they are in working order. If an escalator is found to be defective in service, the escalator is immediately withdrawn and an engineer is called for investigation and repair.

Once again I'd like to apologise for the upset caused and sincerely hope that you see an improvement at Holborn in the coming weeks.

Please contact me again if you need any help in the future. Yours sincerely,

Clive Nwonka Customer Service Advisor Customer Service Centre

Notes 14.03.2012 13:33:39 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL Dear Sirs

On 13 March at around 6pm I attempted to enter Holborn tube station, as usual, after my day at work. Entry into the station was impossible in any reasonable period of time. This is not a new phenomenon; it has been thus for several weeks/months every evening, some evenings worse than others. I'm sure you will tell me this is a result of essential escalator works which mean that there are more people crowded into the first lower level trying to reach platforms and more crowding on the platforms caused by people having fewer escalators to use to egress.

However, this cannot excuse the ridiculous and dangerous crowds which form each evening outside the station and the delays to entry into the station. Last night I resigned myself to walking to Russell Square to enter the Piccadilly Line, adding 15 minutes to my journey home. To add insult to injury before doing so, the automated announcement reminded us that the reduced entry was done with our safety in mind and invited us to walk to another station (which I eventually did).

The last time I checked, I didn't purchase a travel card to have the benefit of walking to another station which may or may not be convenient at any given time after a day at work. Luckily, yesterday evening the weather was clement.

This situation really must be sorted out sooner rather than later. And, I'm afraid, I do not care how many reasons you can give me for why and how the overcrowding and reduced entry continue to blight many hundreds of passengers journies home; whatever is being done/considered to alleviate it isn't sufficient.

The fact that police officers are employed at the station would indicate that TFL is aware that there could be a number of extremely annoyed passengers and that tempers may flare (I'm sure you will tell me that they are only their for my "safety", however).

Yours faithfully

Ref: 1010371128

Date 27.03.2012

Dear

Thank you for your feedback form regarding the escalator service at Holborn on Tuesday 13th March. Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to you.

I'm sorry that the escalator was out of service and for any inconvenience caused. As you may be aware, escalator 2 is currently out of service for refurbishment with escalators 1 & 3 running down and up respectively. Earlier in the day a lady caught her stiletto heel in the bottom of escalator 1 which continued to run down. The diamond shaped emergency alarm on the escalator was activated and two of our Customer Service Assistants attended. An engineer was then called, who established that the incident had pushed many of the stairs out of alignment. As a safety measure the escalator was taken out of service for the rest of the day but customers were able to use it as a fixed staircase with the station control room monitoring crowd levels. The station informed the Piccadilly & Central Line Information Assistants as well as our Network Operation Centre, who passed on the information to stations either side of Holborn on both lines. Train drivers also made announcements before reaching Holborn.

Thank you again for contacting us and I hope I have explained everything clearly. If you have any further queries please get back in touch.

Kind regards

James Clouting Customer Service Advisor Customer Service Centre

Notes 13.04.2012 22:23:24 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL Hi, I was going to go from Holborn to Kings Cross using the Piccadilly line. When I went to the platform it was a crowd. There were 3 trains held. I think it would be helpful to all if the monitor was placed between the floors with current information about this.

Then we would not have to go to the platform because we could use the Central line going to Oxford Circus then to Kings Cross.

Certainly would not have been such a crowd.

Make life easier...

Your constant passenger

Ref: 1010503850

Date 16.04.2012

Dear

Thank you for your feedback form about what happened at Holborn on 1 April.

I’m sorry to hear about the crowding you experienced. Most of our lines are full to capacity during the morning and evening peaks and often at other times, even when we're running a good service.

There are no current plans to install monitors to show customers to crowding levels on platforms, as the information constantly changes and might be a delay in passing the information on. However, I have passed your suggestion on to the Group Station Manager responsible for Holborn, for his information.

Thank you for taking the time to write in. Please contact us if you need any further help.

Kind regards

Gemma Reid London Underground Customer Services

01.05.2012 21:41:10 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL Hi,

Every morning I change from the Picadilly line to the Central line east bound. Every morning when I walk down the entrance to the east bound central line I'm confronted with hoards of people using the entrance which is clearly marked with 'no exit' to exit the platform. This has been happening for the 8 months I have been making this journey but today and old man was making his way down the entrance and had to battle against the crowd which is not right. There are always loads of staff standing around chatting and laughing at the escalator level but I've never seen one member of staff ensuring people don't use entrances as exits. We pay for those staff to stand around and chat so how about you direct them to sort this problem out.

Ref: 1010584891

Date 10.05.2012

Dear

Thank you for getting in touch with us to share your thoughts regarding passenger’s use of entrance and exit at Holborn station. I can understand how frustrating this must be for you and I completely agree that it would be preferable to always see the right entrances and exits being used.

We expect all our staff to encourage passengers to use the correct channels when using our service, unfortunately this does not always happen and I agree that there are occasions when we could enforce this more stringently.

In this instance I can see how it may look that the problem is being ignored with staff clustered around the escalators and ticket machines, but this can often be for health and safety reasons where they have to be there.

Your point is a good one though, and it is definitely something we need to look into so thank you for taking the time to write in and let us know about this.

Please contact us if you need any further help.

Kind regards,

Tim Coombes TfL Customer Services

Notes 04.07.2012 19:52:17 WEBLOGIN

PREFERRED MEANS OF CONTACT: EMAIL This suggestion does not relate to a singular date, but is a general observation that Holborn station is extremely busy (even before the Games) during the peak hour. It would be helpful to get some estimates of the waiting times from the entrance level to the platform level. This could be done by asking the staff to record how many times a week they have to set up the crowding restrictions at the station and how long does it approximately take to enter a train. Usual journey times (as mine from Holborn to Bethnal Green, with needed arrival 7pm) do not hold and I have to guess how long it will take (just to get it wrong anyway).

I wonder whether this information could be added to the online travel services to help to reduce crowding outside the station (and to choose alternative routes earlier than at the station).

I'd see this very important as Holborn is already out of its capacity to deal with crowds and will be even more so during the Games.

Ref: 1010887764 / 2838220

Date 11.07.2012

Dear

Thank you for contacting us about your journeys on the Tube. I am very sorry that you have been delayed as a result of the occasional temporary closure of Holborn station. As you are well aware, we frequently have severe overcrowding at this station. However, the safety of our passengers is paramount, and station staff must make sure that our platforms aren’t dangerously overcrowded.

The levels of overcrowding in various parts of our stations are monitored by staff in the control room using Closed Circuit Television and if necessary, escalators may be stopped to slow down the flow of customers onto platforms. We may also temporarily hold customers in the ticket hall or outside the station until a train has arrived and the platform has cleared. If overcrowding levels are too high, the station will be temporarily closed to incoming passengers to ease the congestion within the station. Once the platforms are clear, then the station will reopen.

We are carrying more people than ever before and more than the system was designed to carry. In fact we carry as many passengers as the National Rail network on a much smaller system and this can cause an immediate impact on our customers when a problem occurs.

Although overcrowding can be severe, we manage each station to ensure that safety is not compromised and that we can safely manage the number of customers at each station. I understand your concern about overcrowding. However, I hope I have explained the measures we have in place to ensure that you were never in any personal danger.

Regarding your concern about travelling during the Olympics, you may be aware that there is a new website that has useful information on planning your journeys during this summer’s Games. The most important thing will be to allow additional time for your journeys. The address of this website is:

http://www.getaheadofthegames.com/

You can click on ‘what will be different’ and select the ‘changes to public transport’ tab to obtain information on alterations to train times.

I am sorry for the delay which was caused to you by this situation and thank you, once again, for contacting us. Please contact us again if you need any help in the future.

Kirk Martin Oyster Customer Services