UK safety watchdog unimpressed by London Underground “fire” evacuation

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), the statutory safety body in the UK, is investigating the uncontrolled evacuation of a train at Clapham Common Underground station in early May. At this preliminary stage, the RAIB has confirmed that it is conducting an investigation into the 5 May incident at Clapham Common station on the London Underground Northern Line.

Passengers were recorded on social media feeds, breaking windows and scrambling out of a train, they believed to be on fire. A carriage on the train is seen to be filled with smoke. RAIB is now working to clarify the circumstances that led to the near calamity on the narrow island platform. The Northern Line, one of London’s oldest underground railways, only recently celebrated the opening of a short branch to serve the redeveloped Battersea Power Station shopping and residential complex.

Stopped partially inside tunnel

In the usual precise tones of the RAIB, the safety watchdog says that at around 17:43hrs on Friday 5 May 2023, a northbound Northern Line train departing from Clapham Common station was halted by the operation of a passenger emergency alarm. This alarm was operated after passengers within the train became aware of a burning smell. The train came to a stand with one car fully and another car partially inside the tunnel. The remaining four cars forming the train remained fully in the platform.

RAIB have confirmed that the doors of the train remained closed after it came to a halt. What followed, according to the RAIB interim report, was an uncontrolled evacuation of passengers from the train and onto the platform. “Passengers exited the train via windows which had been broken open and the interconnecting doors between cars on the train”, says their official statement. “Other passengers subsequently exited the train after station staff opened the train’s bodyside doors. No serious injuries resulted from the evacuation but at least one passenger reported cutting their hands when exiting the train.

Smoke and burning

Despite the near-miraculous avoidance of serious injury, social media posts from passengers on the single island platform fo the nineteenth-century station, the authorities are concerned that luck played a part avoiding a tragedy. Despite the smoke and alarm, the London Fire Brigade, who attended the station as an emergency call, found no evidence that there had been a blaze. London Underground maintenance staff later determined that the probable cause of the burning smell related to the train’s braking system. However, no determination has yet been made on the smoke in the most seriously affected car.

The RAIB is following up several lines of enquiry, including the actions of those involved and anything which may have influenced them. “[We will review] London Underground’s procedures for incident response and management of out-of-course events [and] the arrangements in place to manage and control the risks of a suspected fire on a London Underground train”, they said. The RAIB again stressed that its investigation is independent of any investigation by the railway industry or by the industry’s regulator, the Office of Rail and Road.