Ilford Hill residents are plagued by loud, non-stop TfL announcements at Ilford station.

These announcements run for 18+ hours, well into the early hours of the morning. It is destroying the peace and sanity of residents, even those living on the topmost floors of nearby buildings. 

Everyone deserves a peaceful, quiet community to live in. We are also concerned by the impact that these non-stop announcements have on children, who are being forced to sleep through the heat of summer without being able to open a window. 

Ilford station has speakers across the length of the entire platform. There are four speakers on every single post. The community is plagued by a stream of non-stop announcements, including:

• Announcements about the next train arriving at a platform, despite this information being on screens, and listing every single stop on the route. This same announcement is heard within the train 
• Announcements about the service across all TfL lines 
• The beeping sound of doors closing 
• Ad-hoc announcements by station staff, which are even louder and are frequent in morning peak hours 
• Announcements about 24 hour CCTV footage 
• Cargo trains which go past at speed, causing buildings and furniture to shake

The noise pollution is so loud that many residents can hear these constant announcements through double glazed windows/doors. Residents are unable to open windows during the blistering heat of summer due to the noise. 

A number of other stations do not have these announcements, including on the Elizabeth line itself. This is a residential community and these announcements are disrupting the peace. 

Proposed solutions:

1) An end to the “the next train”, “24 hour CCTV footage” and “service update across TfL” announcements. The latter can be understood through signage and there is no need for service updates about the entire tube network to be broadcast at such volume 

2) A commitment to stopping all announcements except emergency ones after 8.30pm 

3) An end to the door beeping being broadcast on station platform speakers, and kept to within trains instead 

4) A review of announcements made by staff over the tannoy, and a commitment to reducing the volume of these 

5) A requirement to slow down the speed of passing cargo trains as they go through the station