Self-evacuation: feeling the heat
The detrainment of 2,000 passengers in Ireland highlights ongoing concerns about passenger self-evacuation. Greg Morse reports.
On Sunday 24 July 2022, the weather conditions were sunny and hot. It was the day of the Bray Air Display and the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final in Croke Park, both events drawing thousands of people. The Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) network was operating at capacity with all available trains in service, except for one unit on standby.
By the end of the day, 2,000 passengers alighted from three DART services. But what were the contributory factors, apart from the heat?
A door fault on a DART during the morning caused delays and longer dwell times. This resulted in large numbers of passengers on station platforms, many with small children and pushchairs. When boarding, many were reluctant to move down into the carriages, away from the entrance doors, due to the heat on board.
IÉ staff and crowd control plans were in place at major stations on the DART line, including Bray. However, passengers gathering at unstaffed stations were left frustrated by the lack of available information – that and the fact that all the trains pulling in were already close to capacity. With no station staff present, and given that DART trains are driver only operated, IÉ had no way of implementing processes and procedures to manage on-board crowding.
All trains arriving at Bray were terminating in Platform 2. It was taking about eight minutes for passengers to alight and for their train to be dispatched to clear the way for the next arrival. At 14.47, the 12.46 Malahide–Bray pulled in, and people started getting out. The next service scheduled to stop on Platform 2 was Train E268. At 14.49, as this train approached Bray it was stopped at BR28 signal, which was red to protect the 12.46. The air conditioning wasn’t working on Train E268 and it was getting more and more uncomfortable for passengers, so much so that some were suffering from heat exhaustion.
No on-board announcements were made when the train came to a stand. After being stopped for over five minutes, one of the passengers, travelling with young children and an older person, operated the egress and opened one of the doors. They, and others, then began climbing down to the track. Others followed from this and two other trains, many people learning about the initial egress from social media. The operator’s own messaging, referring to ‘trespassers’, may have annoyed some of them such that they decided to detrain themselves.
Drivers made announcements and staff were sent to assist with the controlled evacuations of the three trains. However, reports then started coming in of passengers climbing down from the platforms at Dalkey, Killiney and Shankill to start walking up the line towards Bray. It is estimated that up to 2,000 passengers did this.
The Rail Accident Investigation Unit (RAIU), who provided the main image, pinpointed the factors that led to the incident. They include the stifling conditions and the poor communication with passengers. The report also noted the influence of the first passenger, and the fact that stopping close to Bray put everyone’s desired destination within reach.
The RAIU made several recommendations, such as highlighting the need to check air conditioning systems, consider crowding during special event days, improve social media communications and deploy staff effectively.
We have seen similar incidents on GB rail, most notably at Kentish Town in 2011, when a train broke down in a tunnel and conditions grew more and more uncomfortable for passengers. At Lewisham in 2018, passengers detrained in part – like the Bray incident – because they knew they were close to a station (though the initial stoppage had been caused by snow).
Most recently, in December 2023, the overhead line equipment came down at Ladbroke Grove, leaving trains stranded for too long for most passengers, many of whom detrained. The incident made the news partly for the delay, and partly for the celebrity status of some of those involved.
RSSB looked at the causes of self-evacuation, which can arise from uncomfortable conditions as with the examples mentioned here, or from fare-evasion or too much booze. But now there may be something else. Many of our people have pointed out how passengers seem to be quicker to get off trains and onto running lines than they used to be. Someone did it at Stafford Trent Valley in August 2023, when their train became stranded after a Class 90 had passed a red and come off. We await the RAIB report with interest.
The People on Trains and in Stations Risk Group (PTSRG) is aware of the situation and is collaborating with the wider industry to understand more about the causes and consequences of self-evacuation. PTSRG is also looking at the perceived changes in customers’ expectations and their confidence in our ability to get them back on the move or get them to safety in a timely managed evacuation as a last resort.
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