‘I was punched on the Tube but TfL failed to help me'
Sally Wynter said she was punched on the Victoria Line at Green Park station last Thursday.
Nobody answered her call when she tried to use a help point to speak to the station's control centre and contact the police, Ms Wynter said.
'I was on my phone standing to the side of the doors,' she said.
'A bunch of people got off, maybe eight or nine people. I didn't see anyone before I felt someone punch me in the side of the arm and knock me with that same fist into the glass [partition].
'I screamed out once I sort of got myself together, I was like 'What the f--- did you just do? You f-----g hit me!''
She said she asked passengers if anyone had seen the man assault her, but that bystanders did that 'very British thing' with just one person 'mumbling'.
'People waiting to get on definitely saw it happen,' she added. 'But unfortunately, no one came up to me. That's the bystander effect in reality.'
She got off the train and pressed the emergency button at Green Park station.
'Basically that help [point] was not manned, so the intercom never connected. I pressed it about four times,' Ms Wynter said, explaining that she eventually gave up and went upstairs to the ticket office where she could get mobile phone signal.
'I was there for about half an hour while I was on the phone to the police. There were basically multiple failings,' she continued.
'It puts people's lives in danger because it's funnelling towards something that isn't very helpful and might not even be the right thing, to be honest.'
Now the startup entrepreneur has called for Sir Sadiq Khan, who oversees Transport for London (TfL) in his role as Mayor of London, to investigate why the help point failed to work – and to audit the thousands of help points dotted around the capital's rail network.
She added that she had 'not heard from Sadiq Khan yet', despite making public calls on LinkedIn and TikTok for the Mayor to contact her.
TfL commissioner apologises
However, she said that Andy Lord, the TfL commissioner, has emailed her to apologise for the handling of the incident.
Last year, the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) opened an investigation into the 4,500 help points on the mainline rail network across the country.
The regulator said in November that 'not all station operators have systems and processes in place to reliably operate their help points, or reliably answer calls from them', adding that a quarter of help points were not working when inspected.
TfL said in a 2020 freedom of information (FOI) response that its platform help points typically called a phone in the station office. If the call is not answered within '30 seconds or so' it is diverted to the London Underground Control Centre (LUCC).
'When an emergency call is diverted to the LUCC, it is presented in our priority queue as an emergency call and they are answered within a few seconds. Typically, this would be within two to three rings,' said the FOI response, which was published on TfL's website.
Siwan Hayward, TfL's director for security, policing and enforcement, said the transport authority was 'investigating as a matter of urgency' why Ms Wynter did not receive immediate help.
'Safety is our top priority and we are truly sorry for the experience that Ms Wynter had seeking help at one of our stations,' said Ms Hayward. 'It must have been very distressing and it should not have happened.
'Everyone should feel safe when travelling on our network. If anyone is a victim or witness of a crime they should be able to access help and support straight away. We train our staff to support customers and to help report incidents to the police.'
A spokesman for the Mayor of London said: 'The Mayor's thoughts are with Sally Wynter following the incident she experienced on the London Underground last week. Everyone should be and feel safe in London. The British Transport Police are investigating and an arrest has been made. The Mayor urges anyone with information to get in touch with them.
'All passengers who use the TfL network deserve to be and feel safe, with complete confidence that if things do go wrong, help is always available. In most cases, TfL staff serve Londoners incredibly well, taking deep pride in delivering an excellent service and supporting customers when needed, including in complex and sometimes distressing situations.'
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