Mortality in a cohort of Transport for London workers
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Transport workers face various occupational hazards, however long-term effects on mortality are less understood. Transport for London (TfL) employs almost 30,000 workers across a wide range of transport-based jobs and working environments.
This study aimed to characterise mortality among TfL employees, and investigate long-term health outcomes.
A retrospective cohort was formed using cause of death data from the TfL pension fund for employees working between 1960 and 2010. Workers were grouped by job title and Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess all-cause, respiratory, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality.
Bus (hazard ratio HR: 1.17, 95% confidence interval CI 1.09-1.25) and London Underground (LU) (HR: 1.23, 95% CI 1.15-1.32) workers had significantly higher risks of all-cause, as well as respiratory, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality when compared to office workers. Mortality rates did not differ significantly between bus and LU workers, potentially due to shared occupational or lifestyle risk factors.
In this large subway cohort study, mortality rates over 50 years were greater among bus and LU workers compared to office employees. However, findings should be interpreted cautiously due to limitations in data availability and unmeasured confounders. Future prospective studies should address these limitations by collecting detailed health and exposure data.
This study aimed to characterise mortality among TfL employees, and investigate long-term health outcomes.
A retrospective cohort was formed using cause of death data from the TfL pension fund for employees working between 1960 and 2010. Workers were grouped by job title and Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess all-cause, respiratory, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality.
Bus (hazard ratio HR: 1.17, 95% confidence interval CI 1.09-1.25) and London Underground (LU) (HR: 1.23, 95% CI 1.15-1.32) workers had significantly higher risks of all-cause, as well as respiratory, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality when compared to office workers. Mortality rates did not differ significantly between bus and LU workers, potentially due to shared occupational or lifestyle risk factors.
In this large subway cohort study, mortality rates over 50 years were greater among bus and LU workers compared to office employees. However, findings should be interpreted cautiously due to limitations in data availability and unmeasured confounders. Future prospective studies should address these limitations by collecting detailed health and exposure data.
Date Issued
2026-05-13
Date Acceptance
2026-03-17
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2026, 16 (1)
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
16
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s41598-026-45200-1
Subjects
Occupational health
Transport
Particulate matter
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
14917
Date Publish Online
2026-03-25