I thought the alarms triggered the 'Could Inspector Sands please report to the station control room.' message? That's what happened at Barking when some stupid kids did it.
To prevent any troublemakers who may read the forum from knowing, I won't specify exactly how the fire alarm system works, but suffice to say there are ways of pressing the buttons so that the station will automatically be evacuated.
The staff look absolutely clueless though, aren't there door buttons at the end of each carriage which is what they use when terminating trains. I was led to believe they also opened the doors?
The staff opened the external door on one carriage, and then the driver opened the rest of the doors in the platform. The train had stopped half way out of the station with its brakes locked on. Thus the only way of getting out was to await staff or try to use the emergency carriage-end doors to reach the cab which was still in the station.
There are also emergency door releases surely?
There are, but only accessible to staff on modern LU Stock.
Another thing, that I find odd is instead of moving down the train to the cab and exiting that way, they all decide it's better to just try and climb through the windows, hold the doors open.
The train cab would have led directly to the track, which may still have been live (that is to say, charged).
Obviously people will be petrified if something like this happens. Who wouldn't? Especially on the tube, but they were over panicking.
I agree. They were over-panicking somewhat (I wonder how many, if any, passengers were intoxicated or not used to the Tube? It would be interesting to know, compared to weekday commuter trains, for example), but the smell from a train's brakes when it has been stopped sharply in a tunnel can be very alarming.
There was no calm and orderly evacuation like we've seen in the video of the South Eastern were everybody remained relatively calm and just left the train.
That's because there was no realistic way of getting out. It is better for staff to lead evacuations, in any case, and evacuating onto the track in a tunnel is an utterly stupid idea without the line being blocked and traction current being discharged. I agree that being stuck on a Tube train which smells of smoke is unpleasant and could cause panic and a need to evacuate, but passengers did go over the top here. And yes, I have been on a Tube train in a deep tunnel which has started to smell of smoke, requiring due procedures to be followed.
