Services between Enfield Town and Edmonton Green have been suspended until at least 3pm. Enfield Town station is the first stop on the busy commuter line to London Liverpool Street.
Sadiq Khan discusses face coverings on London public transport. The incident took place shortly after 8am Image: LFB. The train derailed after hitting a buffer Image: LFB. The train stopped short of smashing through the station building Image: LFB. The cause of the accident was later discovered to be a wrongly wired signal, which had given the Circle line train a green light and allowed it to proceed. Although at first the government was unwilling to allow the public to shelter from air raids in the platforms and tunnels of the Underground, the heavy raids of September, eventually forced them to change their minds.
However, the conditions in the tunnels weren't exactly pleasant, and safety was not assured even within the bowels of London. Twenty were killed when a bomb hit Marble Arch station on 17 September, , and seven were killed at Trafalgar Square 5 on 12 October when a bomb penetrated the ground and exploded at the top of the escalators, leading to a mudslide which smothered the platforms. The next day, high explosive bombs penetrated Paddington Praed Street, and the day after that a bomb destroyed the road above one of the Northern line platforms at Balham, with the collapsing road and a fractured drain and underground river burying 68 underneath a pile of sludge and rubble.
One further incident came on 11 January the following year, when a bomb dropped into the escalator machine room at Bank, leaving a large crater in the junction above and killing 56 people while also damaging trains on the Central line below.
However, the most horrific incident on the tube during World War II took place at Bethnal Green on 3 March, when a woman with a child tripped at the base of a spiral staircase leading to the Central line platforms there. The air raid warning had just sounded, and in the panic that followed many others fell and were crushed to death by the sheer force of those trying to push their way down the staircase. After much work to clear the mass of people from the staircase, it was found that people had died from suffocation.
On 30 July, , a driver applying the brakes on a train approaching Edgware station on the Northern line suffered from a coronary thrombosis, leading him to release the brakes shortly afterwards under the semi-conscious impression that he had reached the station.
However, the train had not stopped, but was instead travelling at at least 12mph, leading it to continue through the sand drag, over the buffers and into a wall at the terminus.
The driver died due to his illness while stuck inside the carriage, but nobody else was seriously hurt. On 31 December, , a Metropolitan line train travelling from Baker Street to Aylesbury in thick fog crashed into the back of the Aldgate to Watford service between Northwood and Northwood Hill stations, having previously passed a red signal while following 'stop and proceed' rules, which allow drivers to continue slowly past a red light after having waited for at least a minute.
The collision crushed the rear two carriages of the Watford train together, with the wreckage catching fire due to electrical arcing from the power rails. Three people died of smoke inhalation, but meanwhile around passengers had to be detrained from the two trains involved in the crash and another which had arrived from the other direction, with passengers having to cross live power rails to escape the site of the accident.
The current was only switched off thirteen minutes after the fire had started so that firemen could dowse the wreckage with water. On 5 December, , a signal failure on the Central line near Stratford meant that trains running on that section of line had to follow 'stop and proceed' rules, allowing them to continue very slowly past a red light after having waited for a minute.
However, an empty train carrying three signalling staff sent to investigate the cause of the signal failure soon crashed into the back of the empty train in front of it at around 10mph, trapping the driver and the signal staff in the cab, with one of the men dying before they could be rescued. The cause of the accident was simply that the driver had not followed the rules. On the evening of 8 April, , signal failures led to delays on the Central line once more, with drivers again following 'stop and proceed' rules.
However, a train heading eastbound towards Epping ploughed into the back of a stationary train waiting in the tunnel between Stratford and Leyton just before 7pm, leaving twelve passengers dead and many wounded. The driver was hurt but survived and was later charged with having ignored the 'stop and proceed' rules by a Public Inquiry.
A third accident occurred just west of Stratford on 24 January, , just after signal failures prompted an investigation on the open-air section of line west of the station. Following the 'stop and proceed' rules, a train containing passengers headed slowly along the westbound line so that a technician on board could look for faults in the wiring. A second passenger train then ran into the back of the first, injuring a handful of passengers.
Once more the cause was a lack of caution when proceeding through a red light, and the driver of the second train was rightly given the full blame for the accident.
Among other things, the station inspector working the points had the task of directing the Circle line trains into Platform 1 and the terminating District line trains into Platform 2, with a Circle line train having called at the station a few minutes previously.
Though he had allowed a District line to pass through Praed Street Junction a short way to the west of the station and had already set the points to allow it onto Platform 2 after having dealt with the Circle line train, the inspector then forgot about the District line train. Looking at the timetables he saw that a Circle line train was due into Platform 1 and, assuming that the District line train had already arrived, he switched the points from Platform 2 to Platform 1.
Through some amazing bad luck, the District line train had in fact only just reached the signal in front of the points and was travelling at 30mph when he saw the signal flick from a green light for Platform 2 to a red light for Platform 1.
The points switched while the first carriage of his train was on top of them, sending the front wheels along one set of tracks while the rear set of wheels headed along the other, with the train hitting the stanchion at the end of the platforms side on and demolishing it. Quite amazingly, nobody was badly hurt. However, the air brakes used on trains at the time required electric motors to maintain the pressure, and so the lack of electric power meant the handbrake had to be used to control the train's speed.
Having released the pressure in the airbrakes, the driver found that the train was moving but could not stop it with the handbrake, with the train running down the track and crashing at around 5mph into an empty train at Bromley by Bow station.
On 28 July, , a fire started in the electrical wiring of a Central line train between Shepherd's Bush and Holland Park station in west London, with most of the passengers suffering from smoke inhalation and one person later dying from breathing the fumes. Electrical arcing in power cables at the rear of the first carriage had produced an electrical arc which produced a torch-like flame, which blistered and melted the paint and other materials to produce acrid fumes.
The current to the tracks was soon removed, and passengers had to be detrained towards both Shepherd's Bush and Holland Park. A similar incident occurred two years later on 12 August, when a fire started in the front carriage of a train between Redbridge and Gants Hill for the same reason. Fortunately no one was killed as the train was only partially full, though a few dozen people were taken to hospital. Precautions recommended after the Holland Park fire meant that the driver's cab had been insulated from the point where the arcing occurred, probably saving the driver's life.
Meanwhile, this second accident led to further attempts to improve safety, with most of the tube stock which had the same type of wiring being altered or decommissioned soon afterwards. On 14 May, , a driver taking an empty train into the reversing siding at Tooting Broadway accelerated through the sand drag and into the buffers at speed without braking until the last second.
The crash trapped him in his cab for several hours, and he later died before reaching hospital. No failing on the part of the train or the driver's health could explain the accident, with the most likely cause being that he had become disorientated and thought he was entering the siding at Kennington, where the siding is twice the length and is uphill from the platforms.
The rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road ORR , has sent two safety inspectors to the scene to "help establish the full circumstances surrounding this incident". Probe into rail crash that injured two workers. Paddington crash survivor fears safety 'slipping'. Image source, GarySpencer The driver was treated for shock, Network Rail said. Image source, London Fire Brigade.
Image source, RLikovszki.
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