Don’t let a tipple turn into a trip in London's busiest railway stations

Wednesday 31 Jul 2013

Don’t let a tipple turn into a trip in London's busiest railway stations

Region & Route:: | Southern

A new campaign encouraging people to take extra care in London’s railway stations has been launched today.

Figures from Network Rail reveal there were more than 1,000 incidents of slips, trips and falls at London stations in the last year.

Paddington, Liverpool Street, St Pancras International and Waterloo stations make up the top four stations in London with nearly 600 incidents occurring between April 2012 and March 2013. In total across London’s 12 largest and busiest stations there were 1,029 incidents.

Many occur when people lose their balance after a night out and alcohol is often a factor. The new digital and poster campaign has been launched by Network Rail to raise awareness and urge passengers to take care on their way home.

Robin Gisby, Network Rail’s managing director for network operations, said: “Nearly a million people travel by train into London every day and we do everything we can to make moving around our stations as easy and safe as possible. Unfortunately our teams deal with far too many people who have injured themselves where it appears alcohol has been a factor.

“At the end of an evening we want people to get home safely. The only thing I want to see fall is the number of incidents, so hopefully the campaign will be a gentle reminder for people to take extra care as they travel home through our stations.”

British Transport Police deputy chief constable Paul Crowther said: “Somewhat inevitably, drinking alcohol can impair people’s judgement and coordination. Encouraging passengers to be more aware of their surroundings, particularly when they have had a drink, and to be alert to the inherent dangers that exist in stations will, we hope, reduce avoidable slips and falls across the network.”

The posters, which will be placed in all 17 Network Rail managed stations across Britain, include an optical illusion with wine and beer glasses giving the impression that the page is moving.

The video, which will be shown on screens in stations and on Youtube, includes three incidents captured on CCTV highlighting the often painful consequences of taking a tumble at a station. None of those involved sustained any permanent injuries.

Notes to editors

To arrange an interview tomorrow morning between 10am and 11am at Liverpool Street station please call Sam Kelly at Network Rail's press office on 07795 647 014 or 020 3356 9164. You can also email sam.kelly@networkrail.co.uk

From 1 April 2012 – 31 March 2013 there were:

1,601 recorded incidents of slips, trips and falls at 17 of Britain’s biggest stations managed by Network Rail.
1,422 did not involve a train, 179 did

Station Total recorded number of slips, trips or falls by members of the public in London stations

London Paddington 177

London Liverpool Street 135

St Pancras International 134

London Waterloo 125

London Victoria 120

London Euston 83

London Bridge 80

Liverpool Lime Street 51

London King’s Cross 49

London Charing Cross 37

London Fenchurch Street 27

London Cannon Street 11

Total 1,029

Outside London:

Leeds 179

Birmingham New Street 115

Manchester Piccadilly 112

Edinburgh Waverley 101

Glasgow Central 65

Total 572

Overall total 1601

The railway industry carries out a number of activities to help prevent slips, trips and falls at stations including:

New digital and poster campaign including using customer information screens
Mats placed across station concourses to prevent slipping on wet surfaces during poor weather
Public address messages and signs encouraging people to use lifts if carrying heavy luggage or bulky bags
Escalators may be switched off earlier at night which helps to prevent people losing their balance.
Many station staff are trained first aiders

Attached with this press release are the posters which will displayed at our managed stations.

The three clips in the online video are from Edinburgh Waverley, Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly stations.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office - South East route
020 3357 7969
southeastroutecomms@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.