29/01/2018 London News

That's all from the BBC News at One

- so it's goodbye from me -

and on BBC One we now join the BBC's

news teams where you are.

Good afternoon. I'm Asad Ahmad.

Parts of the London Underground

are said to be loud enough

to damage people's hearing.

BBC London measured

noise levels which,

on one stretch of the Central Line,

was equivalent to that

found at a rock concert.

Gareth Furby has been investigating

for this special report.

Meet Roberta.

She's now wearing earplugs

whenever she travels

on the London Underground.

It's deafening.

It's definitely not

good for your hearing.

You're losing your

ability to hear slowly.

But could this be true?

Could the noise levels be bad

for unprotected ears?

To get some idea, I measured ten

lines in central London

using calibrated sound meters

supplied by UCL, and on some

lines, there's no doubt

it can get very loud.

OK, so this is the Victoria line

heading towards Stockwell and it's

absolutely deafening.

And here we are on the Northern

line, and once again it's

really loud, I mean,

I'm having to shout!

Can you actually hear me?

It took one week to get

all the measurements

and, as the results started coming

in, I was advised to wear

hearing protection.

The data was uploaded to a computer

at the UCL Ear Institute

and analysed by Dr Joe Sollini.

The Central line has the loudest

section out of all of the Tube lines

and it basically gets as loud

as almost 110 decibels.

To put that into perspective,

that's approximately as loud

as going to a gig or a rock concert.

The three loudest sections

were on the Central line

from Liverpool Street to

Bethnal Green, on the Northern line

from Camden Town to Euston,

and on the Jubilee line

from North Greenwich

to Canary Wharf.

Also, on average, the Victoria

line is the loudest,

followed by the Jubilee,

Northern and Central line,

at or above 85 decibels.

Which, if this was a work

environment, would be considered

so loud that you would have

to wait ear defenders.

so loud that you would have

to wear ear defenders.

I think what these measurements show

is that the Tube is sufficiently

loud to warrant further

investigation and certainly shows

it can be loud enough

to damage people's hearing.

Transport for London says noise

levels on the Tube are monitored

and they're below those set

by the Health and Safety Executive,

whose guidance suggests such levels

are highly unlikely to cause any

long-term damage to

passengers' hearing.

We're confident that nobody

out there is exposed

to an unsafe noise level.

Of course there are parts

of the network that are noisier

than others but you would need to be

exposed to that noise

for a significant period of time

for it to cause any hearing damage.

One of the things we're doing,

of course, is to look at things

like quieter track fastenings

so we grind the rails,

we replace the rails.

All of that is designed

to give a smoother journey

but also a quieter journey.

And even though Transport for London

says it's highly unlikely

there will be any effect,

the UCL expert who analysed our data

this passengers hearing this...

says passengers hearing this...

MECHANICAL GRINDING AND WHIRRING.

..day in, day out could think

about taking precautions.

Gareth Furby, BBC London News.

And you can see more on that

on Inside Out London

tonight at 7:30pm on BBC One.

Or take a look at our

website or Facebook page.

Nearly 1 million jobs are said

to be at risk in London from robots.

A think tank has predicted huge

changes in the way we work

because of technological advances,

but not all of it is bad news.

Joining me now is Paul Swinney

from Centre For Cities,

who are behind the findings.

1 million jobs going

from humans to robots.

What kind of jobs?

In terms of jobs being lost it tends

to be in retail or customer

services. Amazon last week opened

their first automated supermarket

some changes like that. On the plus

side we will see jobs in new areas,

high-paid jobs in London which will

be able to withstand this storm.

Are

we going to lose jobs overall or

gained jobs?

We will see an

expansion of jobs. Despite seeing

one in six jobs at risk of

declining, we will see a further

expansion and there will continue to

be a powerhouse not just in the UK

economy but in a global economy.

How

do we prepare for this change?

This

is crucial because not everyone will

win from these changes and we have

to make sure people are prepared for

this change.

It is about giving schoolkids the

skills they need for the work of

tomorrow but also for the people who

have a job already, how we are

refreshing their skills so they can

take advantage of opportunities that

come about.

Will we see changes in

our environment?

I think we will and

we have seen changes already such as

self-service checkouts in

supermarkets. In McDonald's you can

order on a screen now. There will be

changes in terms of how we interact

with businesses and what works looks

like in those businesses too.

Selfish question, in ten years from

now will I have a job?

You cannot

replace talent so I'm sure you will

be all right for now.

You are

welcome any time! Thank you for now.

A Thames Clipper boat has

crashed into a pier.

It hit Greenland Pier

in Surrey Quay this morning.

All 110 passengers got off the boat

with two suffering minor injuries.

The Cyclone Clipper has been

removed from service

until the cause of the accident

has been investigated.

A previous Clipper crashed

into a pier in 2012.

A new scheme has been launched

which aims to develop

talented young people into future

Olympic gold medalists.

'Discover Your Gold' hopes

to build on Team GB success

which had its roots in London 2012.

Tim Muffet has more.

People who have a certain aptitude

for sport are invited to come along

here to the Lee Valley Ice Centre

in east London and to

demonstrate their skills,

and you never know what could happen

because, Natalie, you are from UK

Sport, this has the potential

to change people's lives,

doesn't it, this event?

It does, it's a great

opportunity to try a sport that

you could be really good at,

but you just don't know it yet.

What successes have you had before?

We have had multiple Olympic

and Paralympic medallists

that have come through.

Helen Glover, Lizzy Yarnold

etc, so if you are 15

plus and you want to give it a go,

you can sign up on the UK Sport

website and come and see

how good you could be.

Natalie, thanks ever so much indeed.

Let's have a quick

chat to you guys here.

Where do your future dreams lie?

I'd really like to get

into track cycling.

And how important is an event

like this for opening people's

minds to that possibility

becoming a reality?

It's a really good opportunity

for anyone who's got athletic

ability to come and try things out,

maybe something they haven't done.

Thanks very much indeed.

Carry on, you are working very hard.

Let's have a quick chat to Vicky,

you are an Olympic silver medallist.

Of course you won double sculls

with Katherine Grainger in Rio,

didn't you, and you were spotted

through an event like this.

Yes, absolutely.

It was the same as this,

I saw an advert for a talent search

and thought I was the height

they wanted me to be, so I went

along for testing and was told yes,

you could potentially be really

good at growing.

good at rowing.

Ten years later I'm still

here and hoping to go

to my third Olympic Games.

Amazing, isn't it?

You didn't row before, you come

along and look what happened.

Yes, absolutely.

That could potentially

happen to anyone here.

Thanks very much indeed

to you guys for coming along.

As you can see, take

a look out to the ice.

Potentially out there

is a future Olympian.

Maybe not in South Korea

on the 9th of February

but potentially in Beijing in 2022.

Tim Muffet there.

Now the weather with Kate.

You wouldn't be blamed if you

thought it was feeling a bit like

spring earlier this morning, really

mild start. Snowdrops starting to

pop up here and there. We have seen

some sunshine this morning but cloud

thickening. We have rain but then

that will clear. You will hang on to

the cloud this afternoon but north

and west brightening up, and as it

brightens the temperature will fall.

It started mild but we will end on a

cooler note, around 7 degrees in the

north of London. Overnight the

windfalls lighter after a breezy

day. Minimum one or two spots out

towards the suburbs down to low

single figures. There will be some

spots down at zero. You can expect

frost tomorrow morning but it is a

cold, crisp start to Tuesday. Plenty

of sunshine around in the morning

but cloud increasing from the west

through the course of the afternoon.

Nine Celsius the maximum. The rain

pretty much stays until tomorrow

evening, then we have outbreaks of

rain, clearing and temperatures

evening, then we have outbreaks of

rain, clearing and temperatures

chilly for the next few days.

That is it, more throughout the day

on our Facebook and Twitter feed. I

will be back at the same time

tomorrow. On behalf of everyone on

the lunchtime team, have a very good

afternoon, goodbye.