Terrified commuters forced to flee burning train

[1e10]

Hundreds of passengers were today forced to evacuate a train and walk along the railway tracks after a commuter service caught fire during rush hour.

After the blaze broke out near Hither Green station in South-East London, commuters evacuated the train and climbed down onto the tracks.

The line had to have its power switched off to avoid electrocuting the 400 passengers as they walked to safety at the station.

The company operating the train blamed the fire on a piece of machinery which overheated after drawing too much electricity from the tracks.

Thick black smoke started billowing out of the Southeastern train around 8am, prompting passengers to pull the alarm and open carriage doors using the emergency button.

Commuters started pouring on the tracks, and banged on the sides of other carriage to warn their fellow passengers they should evacuate.

The incident led to severe delays on the line from Dartford in to Charing Cross, but no one was seriously injured despite the panic.

Several passengers took to Twitter in the aftermath of the fire - Danielle Hammond wrote: 'My train being on fire & being ditched onto the tracks is doing nothing to convince me I shouldn't have stayed in bed today!

'Had so much smoke in our carriage. Scary stuff!'

Emily Bastone-Wright tweeted: 'Wonder if @se-railway will tell us why my train carriage decided to explode and cause panic through other carriages today at Hither Green???'

Commuter Jonathan Lewis told the Evening Standard: 'It started looking like it was foggy outside, then there was the sound of all the windows shutting in the carriage in front of ours.

'Then passengers poured into our carriage to escape the smoke. The announcement was, "We hope to be moving shortly", but by this point the doors were already open and people were helping each other down on to the track.'

A spokesman for operator Southeastern Trains said: 'There was a report of smoke coming from underneath the 7.17 Gravesend to Charing Cross.

'The train was spotted to be smoking on its approach to Hither Green station.

'Passengers in the first four carriages were able to leave the train via the platform at Hither Green and those in the last four were evacuated onto the tracks.

'We had the emergency services on site and engineers are inspecting the train. We believe it was a problem with the shoe gear, which draws power from the tracks, which could have overheated after drawing too much.

'Tracks were electrified but power to the track was cut off by the signalman after reports of smoke were given to Network Rail.'

A spokesman for London Fire Brigade said: 'We were called at 7.56am to Hither Green station, South-East London.

'Two fire engines were sent to but the train was evacuated and there were no casualties. The incident was over by 8.36 and trains are running through the area again.'

However, other commuters using the busy line into London said that trains were prevented from moving until at least 9am.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lk-tracks-rush-hour-service-catches-fire.html

Seems fortunate that the train wasn't too far away from the station. Would passangers have been safe just moving to other coaches though?

 

[Class377/5]

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lk-tracks-rush-hour-service-catches-fire.html

Seems fortunate that the train wasn't too far away from the station. Would passangers have been safe just moving to other coaches though?

Bit of a lack of direct reporting and quoting twitter. Exploded? There was no explosion nor where all lines blocked for hours but the Daily Mail doesn't do factual report on the railways.

 

[SS4]

Indeed, the train was smoking according to the BBC although surely the train would know smoking is forbidden

I am glad everyone got off OK and the fire evacuation worked.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-23849888

Passengers were forced to evacuate a smoking train at a south-east London station.

The Southeastern service from Gravesend to Charing Cross came to a standstill halfway into the platform at Hither Green railway station at 07:56 BST.

Passenger Andrew Lake said he heard "a loud thud" before smoke began rising.

The incident closed parts of the route for two hours, causing disruption for commuters.
'Dark smoke'

Mr Lake said: "There were sparks to start and you think that happens every now and again... but there was a lot of dark smoke and it was coming in the carriage, people were shutting the windows."

"People started to panic and shouted there's a fire."

Some travellers were able to leave the train via the platform, while others had to walk to the station along the tracks.

Southeastern, which operates the route, said replacement buses were used to help commuters continue their journeys.

 

[OuterDistant]

Don't take this personally, but I knew as soon as I saw the title of this thread that it was going to be a Daily Mail headline, and thus had to be taken with a heavy pinch of salt.

 

[Antman]

Don't take this personally, but I knew as soon as I saw the title of this thread that it was going to be a Daily Mail headline, and thus had to be taken with a heavy pinch of salt.

"Terrified" is probably a bit of an exageration but the photo's look pretty real to me

 

[ModernRailways]

I think The Guardian's article is best.

Rush-hour train evacuated in smoke scare
Smoke reported underneath rear four carriages of Southeastern commuter service from Gravesend to London

Passengers on a rush-hour train were led to safety after smoke was reported underneath the rear four carriages.

Travellers on the 7.17am London-bound Southeastern service from Gravesend in Kent pulled the emergency alarm and the train stopped halfway into the platform of Hither Green station just before 8am.

With the track power switched off, passengers in the front four coaches were able to leave through the station, while those in the rear four coaches evacuated on to the track where they were met by staff and escorted through a nearby depot. There were no reports of any injuries.

The train was taken out of service and the cause for the fault was being investigated. Southeastern said early indications showed that the train's shoe gear, the component which draws power from the track, had overheated and billowed with smoke.

Apologising to passengers, a spokesman for Southeastern said: "This was an understandably distressing event for the passengers on board the train this morning. Thankfully we've had no reports of any passengers injured. We're fully investigating the cause of the problem to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Buses replaced services between Dartford and London Bridge via Sidcup, and other services were diverted via Bexleyheath. The lines were reopened at 10am with some knock-on delays. Services had returned to normal by 11.45am.

 

[michael769]

Based on that article it sounds very much like a controlled evacuation under staff guidance rather than the mass detrain described by the mail.

 

[SWT_USER]

Southeastern is DOO I believe, so all these passengers managed to get off without a guard?

 

[SF-02]

Yep it's DOO. Can imagine it would be pretty worrying given trains are normally busy at that time and that's one of the last stations before London, so standing room only and not much space to move into another carriage. Only way out would likely be the doors in an area with third rail.

 

[jnjkerbin]

Sounds like all staff acted promptly to get people off safely.
Some tweets on SE's twitter feed seem to suggest otherwise:

"Train on fire yet driver says we will be on the move soon! @Se_Railway you sure?! #mixedmessages"
"@Se_Railway you'd hope the driver might know his train us on fire though! People were walking up the tracks before he knew it was on fire!"
"@Se_Railway @NLL2011 Service appalling this morning . Fire on train no info from the company and we were left to our own devices."

The PA system on the Networkers can be very poor at time so info may have been getting through but not very well. On one train I could hear the cab to cab phone better than I could hear the PA! And then there's always the possibility of earphones in, can't hear anything.

Anyway, it gives a good example of Daily Mail story wrangling:
Staff evacuate passengers from smoking train
Staff evacuate terrified passengers from smoking train
Staff evacuate terrified passengers from burning train
Terrified commuters forced to flee burning train
Terrified commuters trapped on imminently exploding train by malicious staff
Rail staff blow up train full of trapped, terrified commuters
Rail staff who's salaries are funded by the taxpayer blow up train full of trapped, terrified commuters
Immigrant rail staff who's salaries are funded by the taxpayer blow up train full of trapped, terrified commuters

Whoops! Got a bit carried away!

 

[455driver]

Based on that article it sounds very much like a controlled evacuation under staff guidance rather than the mass detrain described by the mail.

Doubt it unless the driver can control the evacuation from several doors at the same time.

Anyway SE commuters know best, they dont wait for instructions from staff.

At Guildford once a passenger reported to me that my train was on fire because of the smell of smoke inside the train but when I pointed to the smoke eminating from Chalk tunnel (a steamer had just gone the other way) she went very quiet.

 

[Carlisle]

Southeastern is DOO I believe, so all these passengers managed to get off without a guard?

Did not take long to turn into another DOO bashing thread i see

 

[D1009]

Presumably the driver would have been unaware of what had caused the emergency until after the train stopped. It's a pity he/she didn't allow the whole train into the platform as the evacuation would have been simple, and probably not even newsworthy. This train is not booked to stop at Hither Green.

 

[SWT_USER]

Did not take long to turn into another DOO bashing thread i see

What made you think that was DOO bashing?! Quite the opposite if anything.

 

[jnjkerbin]

Presumably the driver would have been unaware of what had caused the emergency until after the train stopped. It's a pity he/she didn't allow the whole train into the platform as the evacuation would have been simple, and probably not even newsworthy. This train is not booked to stop at Hither Green.

Is it possible to delay the EBA (Emergency Brake Application) on the 465/6? I didn't think it was possible on some of the older stock?

 

[Carlisle]

What made you think that was DOO bashing?! Quite the opposite if anything.

Sorry if i put it the wrong way ,i was just more interested in reading what happened in this incident rather than getting into the DOO debate again on this thread

 

[Captain Chaos]

Is it possible to delay the EBA (Emergency Brake Application) on the 465/6? I didn't think it was possible on some of the older stock?

If the cab design is the same as that of 165/166's then yes you should be able to. There is a bypass button to the right of the deadman's pedal. Must be used within 3 seconds (I think) of the Pass Comm activating and must remain pressed for the full duration you wish to over-ride the brake demand. As soon as you release it the brake will go in and will not re-set until the pass comm that activated it is re-set.

 

[jnjkerbin]

If the cab design is the same as that of 165/166's then yes you should be able to.

If Railworks is anything to go by then yes it is :P

 

[1e10]

Doubt it unless the driver can control the evacuation from several doors at the same time.

Anyway SE commuters know best, they dont wait for instructions from staff.

At Guildford once a passenger reported to me that my train was on fire because of the smell of smoke inside the train but when I pointed to the smoke eminating from Chalk tunnel (a steamer had just gone the other way) she went very quiet.

Sounds as if the passangers had more of an idea about what was going on than what the drivr did so I guess they did know best in this situation.

 

[Latecomer]

If the cab design is the same as that of 165/166's then yes you should be able to. There is a bypass button to the right of the deadman's pedal. Must be used within 3 seconds (I think) of the Pass Comm activating and must remain pressed for the full duration you wish to over-ride the brake demand. As soon as you release it the brake will go in and will not re-set until the pass comm that activated it is re-set.

On 378's (and I'm guessing related traction) if you release the bypass foot plunger you will get the brake application but it is possible to push it in again once the train has stopped in order to override and continue into a station. This mitigates against the scenario whereby due to a packed train it might be a challenge to get back to reset a pass comm in anything other than the first one or two carriages without a considerable delay.

 

[DJ_K666]

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...lk-tracks-rush-hour-service-catches-fire.html

Seems fortunate that the train wasn't too far away from the station. Would passangers have been safe just moving to other coaches though?

This is why it's a bad idea to get rid of platform ramps.

 

[Silv1983]

A friend of mine was on this service and posted a picture on facebook. Looked like a whisp of grey smoke to me!

Anyway you wouldn't catch me jumping off a train running on a third rail. But then, as a railwayman - I know that EMUs don't explode.

 

[BestWestern]

The Evening Standard also suggests an uncontrolled evacuation; "The announcement was 'We hope to be moving shortly' but by this point the doors were already open and people were helping each other down onto the track". Assuming that's true, pax were self evacuating onto the line in a DC electrified area. Yet again, the lone member of staff onboard was unable to do anything with his passengers other than make a wholly inadequate announcement while they all leapt out of the doors, presumably with no confirmation at all that the power was off. Another DOO near miss I'd say.

Anyhow, a smoking pick up shoe it seems rather than an actual fire; bit of wedged debris perhaps?

 

[Tomnick]

Sounds as if the passangers had more of an idea about what was going on than what the drivr did so I guess they did know best in this situation.

Sounds like they knew more about what was happening - but not more about the response that would be appropriate. Despite the DM's assertion that they were forced to evacuate, I can't see any indication that they gave anyone chance to instruct them otherwise...

 

[PermitToTravel]

I'm not sure that it would have been appropriate for the driver to override the emergency brake activation, if part of the train was in a platform - how would he know that the emergency isn't one related to the platform-train interface, particularly someone likely to fall in the gap beside the train, where the driver can't see?

 

[jnjkerbin]

Picture of the smoke from BBC News.

 

[315804]

Bit of a lack of direct reporting and quoting twitter. Exploded? There was no explosion nor where all lines blocked for hours but the Daily Mail doesn't do factual report on anything.

FTFY

The Daily Wail loves a little hysteria :roll:

Glad everyone was okay. Perhaps this adds to the argument for conversion of the 3rd rail network to AC overhead?

 

[Starmill]

I'm chuckling to myself here at everyone thinking this was a controlled evacuation. Which staff were doing the controlling? The driver who had enough idea what was going on to make a standard announcement about being on the way soon

 

[rf_ioliver]

<much DM merryment deleted>

Whoops! Got a bit carried away!

You haven't even started...for example, you missed the who EU angle:

Left-wing eurocrats blow up train full of terrified commuters staffed by immigrants funded by handouts from BRITISH taxpayers; narrowly avoiding a local school, nursery, hospital during the PLUNGE from 30,000 ft....its 'elf and saftey gone mad I tell you!

I'll get my coat....

Ian

 

[Mintona]

Is it possible to delay the EBA (Emergency Brake Application) on the 465/6? I didn't think it was possible on some of the older stock?

If a passcom is pushed the driver can override it; however if two are pushed, the same one pushed twice or an egress pushed then I believe it can't be overridden.

From what I've read I gather the problem was in the rear 4 coaches? Obviously the driver at the front would be blissfully unaware of anything going on back there as he's looking the other way. I'd imagine he's had a passcom activated and presumed it was someone who wanted to get off at Hither Green after realising it wasn't stopping, hence the announcement about being on the way shortly. Looking back that sounds silly but I'd imagine at the time it would be the first thing to cross the driver's mind, especially as it happens fairly frequently on the north Kent lines.