Passengers trapped in Tube 'close to disaster'

A disaster was narrowly avoided when thousands of passengers were trapped for more than an hour on Tube trains in stifling conditions, a leaked report reveals.

More than 600 people were treated for heat exhaustion and 18 were taken to hospital after trains were stopped in a tunnel in the summer of 2001, but the consequences could have been considerably worse, the document says.

The London Underground control room was slow to appreciate the seriousness of the incident – on one of the hottest days that year. Evacuation was delayed because of a breakdown in the chain of command.

The internal report revealed a catalogue of errors and found that if conditions had been "very slightly different", the consequences "could have been disastrous". It is understood the document's authors believed there could have been fatalities if the passengers had been made to stay on the trains for much longer.

Mike Strzelecki, London Underground's director of safety, conceded that mistakes had been made when three overcrowded Victoria line trains were stopped in a tunnel near Highbury & Islington station in north London.

Mr Strzelecki claimed there had been no attempt to keep the report private. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It is important to look at incidents of this nature very carefully indeed and make sure that the lessons are learnt. And we are learning those lessons.

"Mistakes were made, and it is learning from those mistakes that is important."

Duty managers and controllers were being trained to new standards, he said. "It wasn't drivers who made mistakes in that incident; it was our controllers and duty managers. The chain of command didn't operate as it should have done."

Mr Strzelecki also confirmed that public-private partnership plans for the Tube did not provide for ventilation and air cooling on deep-level lines, such as the Victoria line. It was "physically impossible" to install cooling and ventilation systems on these lines because there was no land available to build new shafts.

Passenger groups reacted with furyyesterday to London Underground's view that overcrowding was partly a question of definition. In evidence to the Commons' Transport Committee, Tube chiefs said they tended to use the word "crowded" rather than "overcrowded". They said the question of overcrowding "will inevitably include an element of subjectivity and semantic argument".

John Cartledge, deputy director of the London Transport Users Committee, said: "Saying it is an argument about semantics is no help to passengers. The fact that there are no limits to the numbers of people allowed on an Underground train does not mean that passengers are indifferent to the conditions under which they travel. Passengers' physical safety may not be in jeopardy but their comfort and well-being are liable to be affected.

"We don't blame London Underground. It is running all the trains it has. We blame the lack of funding in the Tube system, which has failed to bring about an increase in capacity."