The brand new Elizabeth Line trains have an alleged fault which could injure people, a whistleblower has claimed.
Around 70 of the line’s new trains are fitted with 7KG metal boxes close by the passenger doors, which are reportedly at risk of blowing off the train from a build-up of gas.
The manufacturing company, Alstom, denied anybody was at risk and said it was rolling out a new component at the end of the month to fix the issue.
The Daily Mail reported an internal memo to Alstom staff that reportedly warned engineers not to go near the boxes while working on carriages.
It added that if there was a choice of routes, engineers should always choose to avoid the converters.
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They whistleblower told the Daily Mail: "It’s odd that it’s enough of a risk to employees for them to implement safety precautions, but not to customers.
"If the trains are passing through stations at 100mph or crossings where there are people and one of the doors comes off, it’s a 7kg lump of metal that could cause chaos and wipe quite a few people out."
Alstom said they always took safety precautions to protect workers, who were exposed in ways the public were not.
The firm said passengers were totally safe to continue using the train and, because the new line is a stopping service, no trains speed through the stations, jeopardising the boxes.
Alstom added that “detailed risk assessments” supported the continued and safe use of the train and TFL pointed out that the trains...
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