Mayor hails progress on safer suburban stations, and calls on rail companies to do more
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone today visited Southern Railway's TfL-funded state-of-the art security centre, to highlight safety and security improvements paid for by the Mayor and TfL at over 50 per cent of London's suburban rail stations. Over £32 million has been invested in making London's suburban rail stations safer. 162 stations have now been improved, with new and upgraded CCTV, help points, and better lighting in an around stations. £3.83 million has been invested in the security centre at Streatham Hill station, which allows the monitoring of all Southern Railways stations in the London area. A further 54 London stations will benefit from safety improvements when TfL takes control of the control the North London Railway in November, as the first part of the 'London Overground' network. The Mayor was today joined by Keith Hill MP for Streatham, Dawn Butler MP for Brent South and London Assembly Member Val Shawcross and called on the capital's rail firms to follow his lead and invest in safety improvements at the remaining 20% of stations in the capital. The Mayor said: "Londoners have the right to expect a safe and secure environment at their rail stations. Through Transport for London we have delivered more than £30 million investment to make suburban rail stations safer, showing what can be achieved when the train operating companies work together with Transport for London. "Some train operators have not worked with us, and it is essential that they now recognise their responsibility to making their stations as safe as possible. Passenger safety and security, and the provision of a decent service that people can use with confidence, should be central to their operation." Streatham Hill is operated by Southern, one of the train companies that has worked most closely with TfL to boost security. Southern MD, Chris Burchell, said, "I would like to thank both the Mayor and our partners at TfL for the financial support that has allowed us to deliver some important safety benefits for our passengers. The investment that we are celebrating today has been a huge complement to our own efforts and investment to drive down crime and anti-social behaviour on our trains and stations. “The high profile work that our special security task force do - day in and day out - is an even more visible sign that we are trying to make every passenger journey as safe as possible. Working closely with the BTP, the Task Force has proved invaluable and is already racking up an impressive record of crime prevention and dealing with anti-social behaviour. “At Streatham Hill the CCTV control
centre is the jewel in the investment crown. This has truly transformed
the way in which our stations are monitored. It has allowed us to provide
immediate help to passengers across south London, 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week, 365 days of the year."
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