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Remember spring last year when tube passengers at Clapham Common station had to scramble through smashed windows as the carriage began filling with smoke? It was scary stuff, and led to calls for the safety of the station’s slim island platform to be reviewed.
Following the incident, a Rail Accident Investigation Branch’s report concluded that London Underground Limited ‘did not identify the risk of passenger evacuation from a partially deplatformed train, in particular at narrow island platforms’.
But now Sadiq Khan has admitted that there are no plans to expand the Northern line platform, nor the similarly narrow island platform at Clapham North. Each spans just 3.7 metres and serve both the southbound and northbound Northern lines.
Last month, Marina Ahmad, the area’s London Assembly member wrote to the mayor to ask whether he would commission research into small island stations and ‘whether enlargement of platforms would be better for capacity, the economy and safety’.
In response, Kahn said: ‘Following the incident in May 2023, and prior to the publication of the RAIB investigation report, TfL reviewed the safety risk to its customers at island platforms…
‘As a result, TfL updated the relevant risk assessments and ensured that congestion plans consider these risks and the risks of passenger evacuation from a partially deplatformed train.
‘TfL has considered the potential safety risk closely, including the possibility of widening these platforms. To do so would require significant works to be carried out at the station, including expanding tunnels to allow for the wider platforms. Such works would require closure of the stations for a considerable period of time which would be disproportionate to the benefits. There would also be significant costs.’
He added that TfL believes that risks can be managed under current measures, but the situation is being kept under review.
TfL glow-ups with Time Out
While Clapham Common tube station might be staying the same, there’s lots of work happening to spruce up other parts of London’s transport network. Here’s a first look at the new Piccadilly line trains being built in Yorkshire, the Central line’s trains are getting refurbed (though the line is hampered by delays), the DLR is getting new trains (though these are delayed indefinitely), while the Bakerloo line could be next to get extended.
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