The London Underground has become an unsafe environment – that's why tube drivers are going on strike

Last Friday morning at 8.20am on a busy commuter train on the District Line, for a group of passengers and tube workers, their world stopped. Thirty people were injured in the explosion of a homemade bomb and the subsequent unsafe evacuation.

By the time the news broke last Friday, our Tube customer service workers and drivers were already responding to the attack. Workers for London Underground (LU) are not often paid tribute to, yet they are the very first line of emergency defence for passengers if something goes wrong.

Parsons Green last week was the just the latest newsworthy “serious incident” where our members have found themselves as first responders. Members at North Greenwich, London Bridge, Westminster, Highbury and Islington, Kings Cross, Southwark, Finsbury Park, Hammersmith, Earls Court, Euston stations have all been called into action to deal with potential terrorist incidents since the start of the year. And they deal with thousands of minor incidents in the line of duty.

Whilst the focus and attention has, quite rightly, been on the professionalism of response and co-ordination of the emergency services – the police, fire, ambulance service and all branches of the NHS – last week it was again LU employees dedication to public safety which prevented loss of life at Parsons Green.

The train driver who led people safely across a live track and the two customer service staff who did their best to evacuate hundreds of panicked and stampeding passengers, deserve recognition for the role they played in the fight against terrorism.

Yet under the Tories, the Department for Transport has spent the last seven years ensuring the current direction of our country’s transport policy is to cull staff from our railway stations and trains. Chronic understaffing is now systemic – not as a result of automation but because of a deliberate policy of transport austerity.

Parsons Green was understaffed last Friday – like many other stations across London. One full time member of staff was supported by just one part-time member, employed to work through the rush-hour period only. Your tube workers are scared for public safety because they are fearful for their own. That fear is now damaging their confidence in their ability to provide a public service, which is damaging their well-being, raising their stress levels permanently. Sickness absence levels are rising, depleting the rosters already left skeletal by the last wave of Boris Johnson's cuts as Mayor of London which took 800 jobs off our tube two years ago.

TfL claims that it operates within legal minimum safety numbers is to make an ass of a law put in place over 30 years ago when passenger numbers were far lower. LU will claim its stations are staffed up to quota. For those of us working for and with those who really make transport in London happen, that claim is – to use a proper London expression – cobblers.

Our thoughts and hearts this morning are with those who thankfully survived last week's attack. The blame for it lies firmly with the terrorists. But perhaps because we are not in mourning this week, we can give space to the voices of our tube members who are telling all Londoners, that we need to create a different passenger safety narrative.

Lack of resources is not an excuse our under-paid members are prepared to accept from their highly-waged paymasters. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of Transport for London (TfL) directors that receive more than £100k per year salaries. Some have rewarded themselves with 30 per cent or 40 per cent tax-exempt bonuses and continually exploit HMRC tax loopholes to legally evade and illegally avoid paying their fair share.

Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) is now in the process of our own review which is already revealing unequivocally that LU stations are perennially understaffed. In the run-up to Christmas last year we banned all overtime to demonstrate which stations ought to be closed for safety reasons and how understaffed your tube network is. We went on strike over the issue in January this year. Jobs have subsequently been restored. But too few and too slowly to cope with the sheer volume of passenger numbers and the unprecedented threats to their safety.

A week on, TSSA members are thankful we are not commemorating Parsons Green by grieving for victims. But we are sounding the alarm. Safety standards and procedures need to be better on each and every day, so that London’s transport system and workers are properly prepared, supported and staffed so they can save lives if or when another attack comes our way.

Ben Stevenson is TSSA organiser for London Underground