Noisy Tube passengers will be banned, says Tory London mayoral candidate

London public transport passengers who listen to loud music or take calls on speakerphone could be thrown off networks such as the Tube under plans put forward by the capital’s Conservative mayoral candidate.

Susan Hall said she would update the Transport for London (TfL) conditions of carriage to include a ban on people playing loud music and videos.

TfL users who take calls on speakerphone or play loud music would risk a fine of up to £1,000 or being removed from the network as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour.

Current conditions state that under-16s with concession Oyster cards are not allowed to listen to music without earphones.

But Ms Hall would widen that so all users of the Tube, London buses and other TfL networks would not be allowed to play audio such as music out loud or take calls on speakerphone.

The Tory mayoral hopeful said passengers “deserve a safe and quiet journey home”, adding that “under Sadiq Khan, the London Underground is less safe and less civil than it used to be”.

She added: “I will overhaul the rules to ban disruptive anti-social behaviour and ensure that existing rules are enforced better by TfL staff.”

Enforcement ‘would need huge spending’

The new rules and their enforcement would work like the network’s alcohol ban, which was introduced by Boris Johnson when he was mayor in 2008.

It was broken by Diane Abbott, then the shadow home secretary, who apologised for the breach after being photographed drinking a can of M&S mojito on a London Overground train.

A spokesman for Mr Khan said implementing formal restrictions on activities such as playing music out loud would be “very difficult”.

He added: “With millions of journeys every day on London’s transport network, we should all be considerate of other passengers around us, including the noise coming from our personal devices.

“Implementing formal restrictions would likely be very difficult, requiring bus and Tube staff to police how passengers operated their individual phones. It would require huge extra spending on enforcement and put impossible pressures on hard-working transport staff.”

Ms Hall also announced plans to clarify rules governing filming videos for social media, such as YouTube or TikTok, on the Tube – a phenomenon on the rise in recent years.

Other behaviours already banned on TfL, including at train and bus stations, include smoking or vaping, using rollerskates or skateboards or taking flash photographs.

In 2022, the Government announced a review into train announcements on rail networks across England with a view to reducing “unnecessary ‘tannoy spam’”.

Grant Shapps, the then transport secretary, said train passengers were “too often plagued by an endless torrent of repeated and unnecessary announcements”.