Every journey on public transport should begin with safety and accessibility at its core. One of the most significant risks to passengers is the Platform Train Interface (PTI), the point where passengers board and alight from trains.
Across the rail industry, PTI risks account for almost half of passenger injuries. For asset owners such as London Underground (LUL), reducing these incidents is a central part of the safety strategy, aligned with legal responsibilities under the Construction, Design and Management Regulations (CDM) to manage risk on behalf of passengers and staff. However, reducing PTI risk is not simply about compliance; it is about protecting lives, ensuring inclusivity, and maintaining public confidence in the transport system.
At first glance, the solution to PTI risk may appear straightforward: close the gap between train and platform reducing the stepping distance. In practice, it is far more complex. Much of London’s network for example, is shaped by its Victorian heritage with curved platforms and constrained geometry, which was not designed to accommodate today’s longer trains, higher passenger volumes, or modern accessibility standards. Any engineering intervention will have consequences that impact the wider system. What improves safety in one area can create challenges elsewhere if not carefully managed. This is why PTI demands a whole, system approach.
Projects are identified with a risk-based prioritisation strategy undertaken by LUL, which identifies where the greatest impact to passenger safety will be realised. This exercise considers incident history, passenger volumes, special events, and the physical characteristics of stations. This ensures resources are targeted where they will make the greatest difference, and that investment decisions support the long-term safety and accessibility ambitions. As part of our work as their Delivery Partner, we support the PTI programme in implementing this across the network.
Our role is to bring together the many moving parts of PTI projects into a coherent whole, ensuring that technical, operational, and passenger considerations are aligned. This requires careful coordination, strong communication, and a clear understanding of how changes impact the wider system.
Equally important is the need to balance safety, cost, and practicality. An ideal engineering solution may not be deliverable in a live operational environment, while a lower cost intervention may not achieve the required safety outcomes. Navigating these trade-offs with stakeholders is essential to achieving solutions that are both effective and deliverable.
At the same time, we must consider the human dimension. Any change to the station environment influences passenger behaviour. Anticipating these effects and working closely with operational teams ensures that improvements are supported by updated processes, training, and incident management strategies.
Every intervention is tested not just in design, but in the real world. Post-implementation monitoring is critical in confirming whether risks have been reduced and whether new challenges have emerged. This stage is important because even the most carefully modelled interventions can have unforeseen and unintended consequences once introduced into a live, dynamic environment. Monitoring provides evidence of how passengers interact with new infrastructure and systems, highlighting whether anticipated benefits are being realised and whether new risks have emerged. It also creates a feedback loop, allowing operational staff and project teams to refine processes and procedures, adjust passenger communications, or implement additional measures where necessary. In this way, post-implementation monitoring not only validates the effectiveness of risk-mitigation strategies but also facilitates continuous learning into the management of PTI.
Addressing PTI risk is about far more than compliance. It is about adapting a legacy infrastructure to modern expectations of safety, inclusivity, and accessibility, while protecting the passengers who rely on it every day. By combining technical, operational, and behavioural perspectives, and by making informed decisions that balance risk, cost, and practicality, we are helping London Underground deliver a safer, more inclusive, and trusted transport environment for the future.
