To improve security, staff our stations

Increasing pressure is being put on stations to tighten up performances in security checks, putting both CSAs and supervisors under more stress and facing greater risk of action plans and disciplinaries.

The right wing press have also picked up on the issue, with the Telegraph and GB News excitedly sharing stories of staff missing “dozens of fake bombs” dropped by the Department for Transport (DfT).

While performing the job, including its security aspects, to a decent standard should always be a high priority, it’s hard to see what the current regime of security checks and DfT inspections does to keep passengers safer. It feels like an outdated overhang from War on Terror-era security theatre (much like airport security), and pretty much every successful major attack on London Underground so far this century would not have been found by even a perfectly-performed security check.

In many cases, checks serve as a poor substitute for properly staffing stations. Bags hidden on platforms would be easier to spot if stations had the numbers to put staff on regular platform duties, as they do on other sections of the rail network. Checks also function as a cheaper way of monitoring where in the station might need cleaning, or broken assets replaced, rather than hiring more cleaners and station staff who aren’t overworked, and can keep track of these things as part of their regular duties.