London Underground driver sacked after knitting and watching videos at the wheel

A London Underground driver who was caught knitting behind the wheel has been sacked.

Footage shows the driver of the Northern Line train at Hendon Central station appearing distracted as pulled away from the stop in February.

They can be seen watching a video on their phone as well as knitting.

It was only when a commuter spotted the driver and filmed them that they were eventually caught.

The witness who caught the incident on camera said: ‘I was so surprised. I didn’t expect to see someone meant to be at work being so casual about the job.

‘Especially because,at the time,there were Tube strikes going on,so it felt mad they were complaining about the job then relaxing on it.

The Tube driver was seen knitting and watching videos while sitting at the train’s controls (Picture: SWNS)

Transport for London confirmed the train driver was no longer working for them (Picture: SWNS)

‘And,although I don’t know how automatic the system is for the Tube,I remember thinking that this person has the passengers’ lives in their hands.

‘It felt crazy that this driver wouldn’t take that more seriously.’

Transport for London said: ‘This video was made earlier in the year. We carried out a full investigation and the person involved no longer works at TfL.’

Meanwhile commuters have decided to take the state of the network’s graffiti into their own hands and have started scrubbing them.

Recent months have seen a dramatic increase in defaced carriages,with Underground trains frequently seen covered with graffiti both on the inside and outside.

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Joe Reeve,from Looking for Growth,led a team to spruce up trains on Sunday morning.

He told Metro: ‘We are seeing this [graffiti] every single day. I take the Bakerloo Line every day. I see someone push through the barriers,and then every carriage is covered in graffiti.

‘Londoners are fed up and the cavalry is here. We are not going away.’

His team used an environmentally friendly water-based graffiti remover to clear the writing plastered all over the carriages,including on the doors,floors and ceilings.