Great Western Coffee Shop

Footage of a Tube worker yelling at an elderly man and calling him a "jumped up little git" has emerged - a day after the announcement fares will rise. The images, captured by another passenger, show the man in conversation with an Underground steward. The worker then calls him a "jumped up little git" and a "little girl" before apparently threatening to "sling him under the train".

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said he was "appalled" by the video.

The video was shot by businessman Jonathan McDonald. Describing his version of events leading up to the scene, Mr McDonald said the elderly man had got his arm stuck in the door of the train. Mr McDonald said when the victim told the Tube worker what had happened, he was sworn at three times in an attempt to make him stand behind the yellow line.

Mr McDonald said: "The elderly guy quietly questioned why he had to swear, as did several other passengers. [The worker] literally screamed in this guy's face. That was when I pulled out my video camera. Right at the end of the clip you hear him exclaim 'sling him under a train'."

Mr McDonald thinks the incident is particularly bad coming the day after Mayor of London Boris Johnson increased prices on the Underground. He said: "So we have staff threatening to throw passengers under trains and in return, prices going up. Are we supposed to tolerate this?"

Mr McDonald continued: "At the end of the clip you see the look of utter disdain from the female guard. I said, 'he will lose his job for this'. She laughed and walked away in the assumption that we have no power."

A TfL spokesman said: "We are appalled by the scene captured in this video and will investigate thoroughly and urgently what took place and what led to it. We do not tolerate members of the public being abusive to our staff but neither will we tolerate members of our staff abusing members of the public."

Boris Johnson put a response on Twitter: "Appalled by the video. Have asked TfL to investigate urgently. Abuse by staff is never acceptable."

First came the news that Tory Mayor, Boris Johnson, was to put up fares in the middle of a recession (to pay for his scraping of several congestion charging policies; i.e. making some of the poorest Londoners pay more to save some Chelsea tractor owners a few bob - good priorities).

Then came a video allegedly showing a staff member verbally "assaulting" a passenger.

What does this forum make of the events?

A day ticket for less than ^1.60?

A day ticket for less than ^1.60?

If you don't use Oyster then you are either a foreign tourist or an infrequent visitor who won't suffer the ongoing high costs of cash fares.

The danger is of course that Oyster fares will creep up. ^1.50 to ^1.80 in two years. Next year (ie 2011) I bet you it will be ^2.

to pay for his scraping of several congestion charging policies

What does this forum make of the events?

Commuter rant Tube worker resigns

A London Underground worker who was seen yelling at an elderly passenger in a video has resigned from his job.

Transport for London said Ian Morbin, a customer service assistant, handed in his resignation over the incident at Holborn station on 15 October. Mr Morbin has apologised but TfL said the behaviour was "unacceptable".

The video shows him calling the man "a jumped up little git" and "little girl" before apparently threatening to "sling him under the train".

The statement said: "Mr Ian Morbin, a Customer Service Assistant at Holborn Tube station, has advised London Underground that he wishes to resign for personal reasons. He has informed us he would like to apologise for the incident involving a passenger at Holborn Tube station on Thursday 15 October and hopes that his actions have not detracted from the professional job done by hundreds of London Underground staff every day. As we made clear from the moment this incident was brought to our attention this kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable and does not represent the way our staff go about their jobs helping millions of customers every day."

The incident was captured on video by businessman Jonathan McDonald, a fellow commuter at the central London station. Describing his version of events leading up to the scene, Mr McDonald said the elderly man had got his arm stuck in the door of the train. When the victim told the Tube worker what had happened, he was sworn at three times in an attempt to make him stand behind the yellow line, he said.

Mr Morbin can be heard threatening to call the police to deal with the passenger, who is understood to have done nothing wrong.

After the footage emerged London Mayor Boris Johnson put a response on Twitter saying he was "appalled by the video".

An update on the 'London Tube rant' story, from the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8325406.stm):

No, the reason why fares have gone up is that Boris has scrapped certain Congestion charge proposals (put forward by Ken), meaning there is a funding gap. If he scraps the Western congestion charge zone watch the fares go even further.

And London's fares are really expensive. You can get a day ticket on the Paris Metro for less than a single tube journey!

Whether you like Boris or not, Ken was better for London's tranport. Just look at what's been done since Boris took over!

The reason Ken made those proposals was because HE KNEW he had a funding gap, and his only choice was implementation (to fill this gap) or to put up fares himself....
Boris made the difficult choice. No one knows what Ken would have done because the public kicked him out first....


That's bollocks! Show me Paris Metro webpage that shows me the price being less than ^1.60 (about 2 euro)


Go on, tell us.....

Btline - you obviously don't live or work in LOndon, and seem to allow your views to be politically slanted. I suggest you do some research and until then, don't talk about stuff you know nowt about.....

No, you'll do better spending the time reading up & informing yourself, rather than writing uninformed stuff on here.

Perhaps you should read up on what Boris has cut, instead of claiming here that I've made it up.

And Ken wouldn't have made the same cuts, what with this recession upon us?

Either he would, or his fares would be going higher than Boris's. He left a big hole for Boris in the TfL budget.