Request ID: FOI-2986-2223 Date published: 26 September 2023
You asked
Follow-on from FOI-2606-2223:
For 2019: How many London Underground stations were closed to passengers during operating hours?
• Please break down figures by month and by station name.
• Please provide a short note indicating the reason for each closure, such as temporary staff shortages outside of industrial action periods.
• Where one station has been closed multiple times in one month, please state how many times it was closed and why.
• Please also include stations which were partly closed for travel (e.g. one out of multiple lines being closed) -- state which line and why.
We answered
Our Ref: FOI-2986-2223
Thank you for your request received on 15 February 2023 asking for information about London Underground station closures in 2019.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we do hold the information you require.
Stations can close for a variety of reasons including staff shortages in addition to other unforeseen customer or infrastructure issues, such as faults with communications equipment, defective trains, fire alarms being maliciously activated, or other customer incidents. We aim to minimise station closures as much as possible and strive to always exhaust all avenues before making the decision to close a station. However, on some occasions it is unavoidable, and due to safety regulations which require some stations to have a minimum number of staff, we are legally obligated to close the station.
We are aware of the inconvenience that station closures can cause to our customers and only close stations as a last resort, and when we do close them we look to provide onward travel advice to customers (usually directing them to the next nearest open station). We are working to improve the situation, measures being taken include recruiting into roles where recruitment had previously been paused due to the pandemic. On the occasions when we are required to close a station, we will keep stations open according to pre-defined priority criteria, e.g. those with better connectivity to the rest of the TfL and National Rail network or step-free access, by redeploying available station staff to these stations.
Above-ground stations are not subject to the same requirements for minimum staff numbers as underground stations and may be kept open when no staff are available. TfL’s Turn Up and Go service for customers remains available at all stations.
Please find the requested information attached. Please refer to the Notes tab on the spreadsheet. In addition, planned closures and industrial action are not included in the figures.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Gemma Jacob Senior FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
