please empty your brain below
Would you all have taken it more seriously if it had been accompanied by a shrieking, anxious alarm?
How DO you get people to react to 'danger' without get them so panicked they trample a poor granny to death?
In a fire, you're probably better off in the train, if there is one. Besides, you'd need a fire alarm AND a person on the platform AND the driver telling you to get off before you'd get off a tube in rush hour when you've got a seat...
When a station fire control panelstarts on the Evacuation annoucements, it's not just someone pressing the evacuation button, although that can happen it is a rarity that it does, having only once done it myself and that was by accident.
Normally an FCP will go into automatic evacuation mode are
a) two devices have been activated.
b) a device has been activated and after the panal has been silenced but not reset, has reached a certain point where it times out (usually after someone has investigated the problem).
As for customers just sitting there, I think that as you state,it's just the overload of PA's that are used now on the Underground.
However on a different point of view, being on the train is a recognised use in the course of an eveacuation, because as you said, if there is a fre in the ticket hall area, why send customers up towards in instead of away from it by train.
I've used this way to evacuate my own station before and you will still get passengers grumbling about wanting to get the next train as this one isn't the right train for there destination.
I did think that I'd be shepherded out to the street rather than being allowed on the next train.
I found out from a colleague the next day that the emergency was a person under a train - I guess they wanted everyone out of the way while dealing with it rather than having people whining about not being able to get on the Victoria Line.
(Incidentally, doesn't the first stage of the fire alarm trigger a call for Inspector Sands? That man's *definitely* got a bowler hat.)
But I guess automated evacuation mode can't detect which emergency is which, and TfL could be sued for announcing the wrong one.
I once arrived at Victoria main-line station in the morning rush-hour during a fire alert. Automated announcements yes but we knew it was serious because the barriers were open. Then we were directed out of a side entrance by the considerable staff presence. But what amazed me is how everyone just dispersed and carried on with their journey as if this was a normal daily occurrence.
The Inspector Sands message is a generic mesage across the combine and across most national rail station to let staff know that a device has been activated and for staff to get ready in case a possible evacuation needs to take place.
Most times that you hear Inspector Sands will just mean the fire alarm is being tested. which is normally done before a station opens, but in some cases needs to be done during the day as noise abatement orders have been put in place.
However, I've noticed that the regular fire drill at St Pancras now preface the announcement with a warning that the emergency system is being tested.
Also, they request the presence of Inspector Sands in the control room in English *and French*...
The times I have been in that situation. Like you I just sit there. And wait. And hope.
I can recall one situation when the train and platform had been cleared. But I was tired. I couldn't face pushing my way up and out of the station. So I sat on the bench on the platform. And waited. And hoped. I was alone. Nobody was around; 5.15pm rush hour and the place was deserted. Just me and ...what's this a train!
The train came in, folk got off, I got on, and travelled on to the next stop, my stop.
I reckon if your name's on the bomb or whatever then your time's up anyway.
I've been around far too many serious train accidents [Clapham Jct 1988] or bomb blasts [Baltic 1992] to bother me unduly.
True but it's the ones addressed to "To whom it may concern" that I am keen to avoid.
Do we really need regular exhortations to take our possessions with us, that we should mind the gap and that all services are running fine (expect planned works)?
If the network was to cut out the chatter and only impart genuinely necessary messages - then I am sure people would start to pay attention when an announcement is actually made - because it would be a rarity.
There is a known issue of "sign blindness" where people become familiar with a warning sign on the wall, and end up actually blanking it out of existence.
The sign is therefore no longer a warning sign, and just an insurance policy issue for the business.
We need less clutter in our lives - and then the warnings will really start to stand out more.
Alas that these recordings no longer, apparently, advise that train evacuation is a possibility.
I have to confess, with a wee bit of embarrassment, that I was just a little bit worried that our train was sitting so long at the platform of a station where there could have been (but thankfully, it turned out, was not) a bomb.
On getting home I checked the bbc and, sure enough, ther had been a genuine emergency (the new east london line bridge collapsing onto the rail tracks below).
So "Inspector Sam" could well be code for "Major emergency in progress", at Liverpool Street at least.
In fairness you couldn't ignore them. I would've smashed the speakers with my umbrella if I were that way inclined.
A scarily high percentage of people thought that heading away from the exits into the centre of the station and their train was the right thing to do. A sizeable minority thought something along the lines of staying sat with their coffee and starting to read their book was the correct response.
*sighs at the stupidity of some people*
These announcements are great - I used to work somewhere with one. If there was a fire we had to ask people three times to leave, and if they didn't go, just leave them.
However, you can't just introduce alarms in tube stations for just any old incident. Could you imagine the panic that would ensue? I don't think we want to see another tragedy such as the wartime disaster that Bethnal Green experienced in 1943. However, we also need to be aware that people are notified and that, crucially, they must remain calm. Personally, I think what happened at Bethnal Green this time was a compromise. The problem is getting people to distinguish between emergency announcements and standard 'Mind the Gap'-style messages.
I recall working with a lady who worked here [in Sydney], who was used to IRA and other threats in London. Whenever we heard a fire alarm, she would be up and ready: we, being laid-back Aussies, would do nothing. And I think we increasingly are so.
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