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Specially trained medical officers are to be deployed on the Tube for the first time, it was revealed

Boris Johnson unveiled the plan as he pledged to spend £20 million making the network 30 per cent more reliable by the middle of a second term. Transport for London aims to cut huge delays caused by passenger illness by employing a team of British Transport Police trained as medics who will be able to respond to emergencies quickly.

The team of 20, with two emergency response cars, will be deployed on key lines ferrying people to the Olympic Park during the Games this summer.

They will be able to move people off trains and into their vehicles, which will contain treatment facilities. Currently, station staff have only basic first-aid training and services can be delayed for up to an hour as they wait for paramedics to arrive and decide whether a patient can be moved. Tube chiefs hope the unit will be able to get to the scene first and make a decision on whether to move the passenger and get the network moving.

Transport is at the centre of the battle for City Hall. Labour candidate Ken Livingstone has pledged to cut fares by seven per cent if elected on May 3, wiping out inflation-busting rises under Mr Johnson. The Mayor says the fare cut would take more than £1 billion out of TfL, halting the upgrade programme.

Mr Johnson said: “Millions use the Underground every day and we need to harness every single method to run the slickest possible operation. I believe that by doing so we could cut Tube delays by 30 per cent by 2015. Without the long-term investment and the focus my team is providing on improving passengers journeys, there would be a real danger that the Tube would have taken one step forward then five steps backwards.”

Other measures to cut delays in-clude using motorbikes to carry spare parts across central London to get to broken-down trains. Transport bosses are now holding weekly “war room” meetings for every Tube line, listing the five worst problems on the route and how they can solve them.

Deputy mayor for transport Isabel Dedring said: “At the moment we have an emergency response unit but they are focused on [suicides]. But a big chunk of the delays are caused by customer illness. This is the first time we have done something like this.

“Often you have a situation where Tube staff only have basic first aid training and may not know whether they can move someone. These officers are trained as medics and can take over and make a decision.”

A spokesman for Mr Livingstone said: “This is too little too late from Boris Johnson — Londoners long ago gave up on the Mayor’s ability to get a grip of the Tube. These claims illustrate breathtaking complacency from an out-of-touch Mayor.”