How many times has Kings Cross Underground station been evacuated or access to lines been restricted due to overcrowding in the past calendar year? Also, can I request a copy of Transport for London Policy and Procedure of dealing with station overcrowding? I am particularly interested in the parts outlining of how the 'critical' level of overcrowding is measured and any training that station staff receive at dealing with such emergency situations. Thank you.

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Our ref: FOI-3009-1718/GH

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 23 January 2018 asking for information about Kings Cross underground station.

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require.

Please see the table below showing all reported Full Station Closures due to station control/overcrowding at Kings Cross in the last calendar year:

Station	Date	Closure Start Time	Duration (mins)	Reason
KINGS CROSS	01/02/2017	09:03	22	Station Control - overcrowding caused by severe delays on the Metropolitan Line
KINGS CROSS	20/10/2017	18:47	36	Operational Reasons - severe overcrowding due to disruption on Northern and Piccadilly Lines
KINGS CROSS	15/01/2018	09:02	10	Overcrowding due to Piccadilly Line service disruptions
KINGS CROSS	23/01/2018	09:04	10	Overcrowding due to Met Line service disruptions due to signal failure

The details above show incidents when lines have been closed and trains are non stopping due to overcrowding. Incidents where trains are running but passengers are held at barriers for a short period due to overcrowding are treated as ‘business as usual’ for a busy station such as Kings Cross. These incidents are only recorded locally, and to report on this would require us to manually check the records for every day, which would take an excessive amount of our resource.

Each Station has its own Station Congestion Control & Emergency Plan (CCEP).  However, we are not obliged to supply you with a copy of the Kings Cross CCEP as it is subject to a statutory exemption to the right of access to information under Section 38 (Health and Safety).

In this instance the exemption has been applied as disclosure of CCEP would be likely to adversely affect the safety and security of TfL employees and members of the general public.

Although we in no way suggest that you would use this information for anything other than your own personal interests, disclosure of this document under the FOI Act would be regarded as a disclosure to ‘the public at large’. This information could potentially be obtained and utilised by individuals who may wish to use this detailed level of information to cause disruption or harm to the London Underground network.

Disclosure of information which could compromise security and safety preparedness on London Underground’s network would place members of the public and TfL staff at risk by highlighting areas on the network which could be susceptible to being targeted.

The use of this exemption is subject to an assessment of the public interest in relation to the disclosure of the information concerned. TfL recognises the need for openness and transparency by public authorities, but in this instance the public interest in applying the exemption, in order to minimise risks to operational resilience, safe operation of the London Underground network, the welfare of staff and members of the general public, outweighs the public interest in disclosure.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Graham Hurt

FOI Case Officer

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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