Underground conflagration before the overground coronation
the message is clear. Image from social media feeds
Could London have suffered a disaster less than a day before the greatest ceremonial event of the century? That’s the question investigators will need to answer after an incident on Friday brought back memories of an earlier disaster that claimed more than thirty lives. A panicked evacuation of an Underground train at a cramped and busy south London station threatened to spill over into an calamity the likes of which would surely have overwhelmed emergency services and jeopardised the carefully laid plans for the coronation of King Charles.
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LU has been going through a vast improvement programm but the stations at platform level remain very much as they were. Platform doors have been fitted in Paris ( not always due to ATO) and London should consider it like on Jubilee to reduce the risk of people arriving on the platform pushing those already waiting.Enlarging platforms or even creating platforms on two sides like in the Münich S bahn is certainly costly but would improve safety and dwell times considerably . Safety has a cost.
Unlike buses & mainline trains, tubes lack passenger-operable emergency exits; reaching the official exit through the driver’s cab would be impossible for most passengers in a fire; there are no escape instructions for passengers; there are no fire extinguishers; there are no staff on platforms; there’s only one narrow, winding way out of this station. Clapham Common and North stations’ island platforms are completely unsafe – they must be rebuilt, made one-way only or closed.