A Tube worker has told of “nightmare” and “unsafe” scenes caused by train delays and “staggering levels of criminal and antisocial behaviour” from people returning from Winter Wonderland.
The station staff member, who works at Hyde Park Corner station, said dozens of people at a time would barge through ticket barriers and threaten to assault staff when asked to stop vaping in the station.
Problems were worsened by delays of up to 15 minutes between Piccadilly line trains and the escalators repeatedly breaking, making it even harder to manage the vast crowds attending the annual event in Hyde Park. It was a “pure miracle” that nobody was injured, Tube bosses were told.
The worker, who posted an alert on Transport for London’s intranet that has been read by thousands of colleagues, said he wanted to raise awareness of the problems he and colleagues faced last weekend.
He said: “It’s not the first time I’ve worked during this event but what I witnessed during December 9 and particularly December 10 has been nothing short of appalling.”
He said the service on the Piccadilly line was described as “good” on the TfL website when the reality “couldn’t be further from the truth”.
He wrote: “We had numerous five, six, seven, eight, 10, 12 and even 15-minute gaps quite often one after another when it was the busiest time of the day.
“I cannot stress enough how horrible this was for anyone working on the station. We were aware that the weekend would be very busy. However, we weren’t prepared to have a frankly inadequate service, which made the whole situation [go] from difficult but somehow manageable to a nightmare.
“Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, was the staggering levels of criminal and anti-social behaviour. The number of fare evaders we had was in the many thousands. We literally had to watch groups of dozens of people just busting through the gates and there was nothing we could do to stop that.
“Youngsters jumping over the gates, crawling under the gates and storming through the [temporary] gates we had in place for the one-way system was common practice.
“The number of individuals vaping in the ticket hall and on the platform was ridiculous, and I’ve lost count of the number of times I had to make a polite remark to [ask] them to stop.
“What made it even worse was the fact [that] after asking these people to stop behaving obnoxiously, they would laugh in your face, start swearing at you and threaten to assault you.”
He said the escalators stopped working on an “absurd” number of times – at least 15 occasions on Saturday and an even higher number on Sunday.
“I don’t think I need to explain how dangerous this is for customers during a really busy day,” he wrote. “It was a pure miracle that nobody got injured, and the only reason for that was our quick response when resolving the issue.
“The people causing most of the problems were the ‘usual suspects’ who always use Winter Wonderland as an excuse to behave in an utterly despicable and primitive way.
“If this was a case of only a few individuals that would be one thing, but when we’re talking about thousands of people the issue is definitely more serious, especially when there are no repercussions.”
He asked why there were no anti-fare dodging officers or “TSEOs” (transport support and enforcement officers) on a “brutally busy day” with an “outrageous” amount of anti-social behaviour.
“The BTP (British Transport Police) were called at one point. They came and promised to bring some assistance and left immediately afterwards. None of that promised help arrived and we were entirely on our own,” he said.
“I cannot express how frustrated, demoralised, stressed and agitated I felt. If this is the ‘world class’ service we’re providing, we need a good reality check because what we’re experienced at Hyde Park Corner was neither reliable nor safe for anyone.”
A Tube manager, Keith Ashton, replying to the message, said he was “very sorry to hear about the problems that have been experienced as a result of Winter Wonderland”.
He said only a “finite” number of enforcement officers were available but has asked if an “enhanced response” from the BTP is available to manage crowds attending Winter Wonderland, which is open until January 1.
Mandy McGregor, Head of Policing and Community Safety at TfL said: “The behaviour of some customers at Hyde Park Corner was clearly unacceptable with reports of fare evasion, workplace violence and anti-social behaviour, and we are looking into the issues raised.
"The British Transport Police (BTP) and our own enforcement officers are deployed across the network, providing support to station colleagues and responding to the increased demands for support at this time of year.
"BTP and TfL enforcement officers have been, and will continue to be, deployed to stations close to Winter Wonderland to help ensure the safety and security of staff and customers. The safety of our customers and staff is our top priority and we take a zero tolerance approach to abuse of staff.”
