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TfL Promise Quicker Emergency Response

Thurday 9th February 2012

Relatives of the July 7th victims have welcomed an announcement by London Underground which will allow their staff to respond quicker in an emergency.

New vehicles with blue lights and sirens, driven by Police officers, mean key staff will not be stuck in traffic in the event of another attack in London.

The partnership is being trialled for 12 months and Mike Brown from London Underground has told LBC 97.3 he's delighted it is in place before the Olympics.

"This is a very important response for any incident - however large or small - that has a safety and a reliability impact on the tube network. So of course that would include some major incidents, that's not what we're planning for, that's not what we're expecting to happen, but we none-the-less have the capability now. It's a real step forward."

A condition of the new vehicles, however, is that they're only driven by officers from the British Transport Police.

The Government has refused to give civilian staff permission to drive.  

Concerns were raised during the July 7th Inquests about how long it took tube staff to travel through traffic to the bomb sites. 

The scheme is in effect from today.

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