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Paddington station evacuation (27/10)
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ShwervinMervin
Member
Yes. I have just had a look. Seems a fire alarm has been pressed at the station. No sign of fire though.
ShwervinMervin
Member
That’s good news. 
highspeed990
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Probably a drill
The only planned 'drills' done at major terminuses are fire alarm tests. They do not involve evacuation.
Even if there were unannounced evacuation drills at Paddington they wouldn't be done at 7pm on a Friday evening.
pacenotes
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Over the PA system they said it was a fire alarm in a shop.
E_Reeves
Established Member
I believe staff have to evacuate as well due to safety reasons. RTT backs this up as well. Screenshots attached and many services cancelled due to RZ (Unknown cause at the station) although most services were just late departing and arriving.
tsr
Established Member
Fire alarm control panel issues, apparently.
So all the passengers that have already boarded and stored their luggage must have had to get it all out again and evacuate the station. It must of been chaos In Praed Street.
E_Reeves
Established Member
I'd assume that'd be what happened.
A panel or system fault should never ever result in tipping out a building if the panel is configured properly!
All I can imagine is that the cause & effect on the panel wasnt set up to delay the sounders (or demand Inspector Sands!) for investigation. Either way someone is probably having a tea no biscuits chat with a boss about now & will be on site with a laptop on Monday morning!
LBOTG
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Yeah I happened to be at Paddington during the evacuation. Firstly, some Inspector Sands announcements started playing repeatedly and after they stopped the evacuation announcement started playing.
If this ever happens to you, I strongly advise leaving Paddington the back way (so the bridge towards the middle of the platforms leading to Paddington Basin), as not many people think of going this way and Praed Street is ridiculously crowded - people were still moving out of the station by the time I'd walked to Bishop's Bridge and waited for/got on the bus!
If this ever happens to you, I strongly advise leaving Paddington the back way (so the bridge towards the middle of the platforms leading to Paddington Basin), as not many people think of going this way and Praed Street is ridiculously crowded - people were still moving out of the station by the time I'd walked to Bishop's Bridge and waited for/got on the bus!
WelshBluebird
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When the main station gets evacuated, does the underground station too? And vice versa? I assume that it probably really depends on the situation, but in some cases the situation isn't fully known until after an evacuation.
paulravuslante
Member
I was also there on Friday night. The Underground station on Praed Street was open but closed soon after I guess because of overcrowding.
This isn't quite true unless it has changed in recent years.
Every so often at the cross we would let a fire alarm go into full evacuation to test out our procedures so that people were not complacent.
Agreed we'd never let that happen on a peak Friday tea time however we did let it happen.
Dhassell
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I seriously doubt that would happen nowadays unless no trains are scheduled to run for the amount of time it will take to do a full evacuation and get people back in the building. I know I would be seriously unhappy if I missed my train due to a fake evacuation that could have been avoided and done at another time!
I would be happy to be safe in the knowledge that station staff are tested regularly to ensure that they can cope in a real life situation of an evacuation rather than just a 'drill'
TwistedMentat
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Got caught in this being on a train coming in. Spent ages stopped before the driver came on over the PA and mumbled something. Had to pull out the phone and look up the National Rail twitter account to find out what was going on.
I'm surprised they still use this...
Many people know what it means. Strange though as the Birmingham New Street announcer uses "Staff Call 100".
In fairness to your driver - in an environment where all electric devices should be switched off lest they become a distraction - how do you propose the driver find out what’s going on? The signalman would have been very busy with several trains at a stand on Approach to Paddington. All the driver can see is that he has a red signal.
TwistedMentat
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The time wasn't the main thing. It was more the crap PA system and mumbling. I don't know if drivers or guards get much training on using the PA systems but it would be so worth it. Just speak slowly and clearly. I know its doable as osme drivers and guards are brilliant at it.
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