Fall of masonry at Mile End

[Robertj21a]

.
Not too good having masonry fall from the tunnel roof while trains are running. Just how common is it ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-28501919

Masonry falls in Tube station tunnel at Mile End

Masonry fell into a tunnel at an east London Tube station earlier, London Underground (LU) has confirmed.

The masonry fell on the track at Mile End Station narrowly missing a train, sources at the RMT union told the BBC.

The driver stopped the train before being hit and no-one was injured, the sources said.

But a LU spokesman said: "The train was static at a platform when the debris came down and fell into the pit, not on the track."

There were delays on the Central Line on Saturday morning following the incident.

Phil Hufton, London Underground's Chief Operating Officer, said: "At no time was there any danger to passengers."

"As a precaution, the Central line was suspended for a short period of time earlier today so the tunnel wall could be assessed by a civil engineer after a small amount of masonry was found beneath the track at Mile End.

"It was found to be safe to resume services and the damage will be repaired overnight during engineering hours."

 

[rebmcr]

Phil Hufton, London Underground's Chief Operating Officer, said: "At no time was there any danger to passengers."

If the rest of the article is correct, that statement can't possibly be true.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

The RMT and LUL statements contradict, the union saying the train was in motion, the OC saying it was stopped.

The union maybe making a point re: driverless operation?

 

[LLivery]

The train was clearly in motion. The Central Line platforms at Mile End or any station are not longer than the train, and the masonry fell in front of the cab, within platform length. I'm not surprised that TfL tried to play it down. The way you know it was not inside the tunnel is the pit. The pits are only in stations!

 

[Rogmi]

There is space between the front / rear of a train in many stations, so it's technicaly possible I suppose if there is a long enough space. In a discussion in a nother forum, it was mentioned that the length of masonry was about a half car long. This does seem excessive and possibly incorrect.

 

[joeykins82]

Like everything when TfL/LUL say one thing and the RMT say another, I suspect that the truth is somewhere in the middle!

 

[455driver]

Like everything when TfL/LUL say one thing and the RMT say another, I suspect that the truth is somewhere in the middle!

Most of the time I would agree with you but the facts in this case are that the masonry fell in to the pit.
The pit is only at platforms so the train cant have been stationary in the platform when the masonry fell other wise it would have landed on the roof of the train!

 

[ModernRailways]

I was on the train behind and our driver said 'The train up ahead has reportedly hit something and so we are being held here until it's been properly investigated. If any of you have somewhere to be I would suggest leaving this train and getting a bus'. About 5 minutes later he came back across and told us we would have to detrain as part of the tunnel had collapsed up ahead and that the line was now Part Suspended. We managed to jump on a train at the other platform so we could head back to Liverpool Street and get a bus.

We were just about to depart Bethnal Green and it seemed as though the brakes went into emergency (possibly done by the control room?) as the train came to a jolting halt with just the driver's cab outside the station.

 

[ATW Alex 101]

I was on the train in-front of this one and we were de-trained at Stratford. We were simply told that this was due to an 'incident' at Mile End.