Evacuating a Subway Car (Video in comments)
imgur.com/a/vSIwR
imgur.comPosted Nov 11, 2014, 2:26 PM UTC
4680
imgur.comVideo of evacuation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo7v9LTVzcs&feature=youtu.be
X-Post from thread advising Subway closure last night:
I was on the Northbound train just before Museum Station when they cut power to the line. The subway was stopped to begin with, and there were minor delays between most of the stops, but then the car went silent. After a minute, the lights dimmed. The driver announced that there was no power on the third rail, but they didn't know why. After a few more minutes, we hear there's "a personal injury at track level", and it'll be a while before we can get going. At one point, a diabetic woman asked the driver if he had anything in the first aid for her, because her blood sugar was getting dangerously low. He gave her a bag of orange slices that he had packed in his lunch. After an hour, they announced that a TTC supervisor would come and we could evacuate. Apparently policy in a non-emergency situation is that they wait one hour. The front of the train was maybe 5 metres from the end of the Museum platform. We all lined up and walked through the tunnel and up the stairs to the main level. I walked from Museum station to Spadina to continue my trip, and saw the notice for the Pape situation. I took a few photos in the trapped train and a short video from when I exited, but I couldn't take too many since my battery was almost dead. It took me 3 hours to get home tonight.
53
They wait an hour before evacuating? Wow... that would be awful to be in. Sorry about your commute!
15
I'm not a religious man, but after about 45 minutes on that train I thanked the gods I didn't have to pee.
18
I'm not a religious man
You're not fooling anyone, with that user name. ;-)
13
Same!
4
No worries, I've already established a pee corner
1
Dwight, it hasn't even been 5 minutes!
2
Apparently policy in a non-emergency situation is that they wait one hour.
Wow, I've never heard of that before. The train was 5 metres from the platform and you still had to wait 1 hour to get out? That's a ridiculous policy.
10
I've been on a train that was evacuated - I'm reasonably sure we hit a jumper pulling into the station - and we certainly did not wait an hour. We waited maybe 10 minutes. However, our train was already partially inside the station, so we were able to walk right into the platform and not through the tunnel. If people have to walk through the tunnel for any reason, I can see them waiting - that adds a whole lot of complexity and danger to the situation, and I think the TTC would prefer if at all possible to keep people out of the tunnels.
6
I dunno if that's actually the policy. I was in this exact situation earlier this year and it was about 15 minutes before they let us walk out the end of the train and through the small section of tunnel to get to the platform.
2
Might be that 1 hour is the maximum. It seemed like that was what the supervisor meant. "It's been an hour, we have to evacuate."
9
Thats three personal injuries at track level in 24 hours. Terrible. When the TTC switches to its newer automated system, they had the option to get rid of the drivers, and switch to completely automated (which many, many cities have). They said the added expense of installing automatic doors, which would prevent people from falling onto the tracks was too great. Now, if any of these three injuries were jumpers it would be worth its weight by saving 1 life, and preventing delays.
7
Would those people actually not have died though or would they have killed themselves some other way? It's better to help depressed people with better healthcare than by trying to block various ways of suicide.
4
if the suicide was an impulsive act due to opportunity then yes it can help
3
Clinically depressed and chronically suicidal person here:
Absolutely. I almost stepped in front of a train once; the absolute urge to just "fucking do it you pussy" was overwhleming - then a mother and her little boy who couldn't have been older than 4 walked on to the platform. Couldn't do it. That was almost two years ago now, and I assure you, I'm not typing this from the grave.
11
First off, I know nothing about suicide but I can only image some people are opportunists, and may very well never do it again is prevented from it.
I think it's worth the cost is it stops even one. I'm sure you can look into stats of other countries with such systems (e.g Singapore) and see if it has declined.
1
That sucks, but i imagine a TTC subway driver was having a worse day than you.
If you kill yourself by throwing yourself in front of a subway driver and his train, you are an asshole.
5
I agree. I understand that the people who commit suicide by train jumping aren't in a right state of mind, but that doesn't make them completely blameless. I know someone who drives trains for BC Rail and he's hit three people in his long career. Every time is rough, and the conductors have mandatory counselling afterwards. At least I got to go home after I left the train.
11
Really? A suicidal person is an asshole? They have a mental illness. I think you are the asshole here.
Sure it's inconvenient for you, but can you imagine the despair that person who jumped felt?
Get some fucking empathy for your fellow man.
2
And how about the poor driver who has to carry the memory of ripping someone apart with their train? In many cases the suicidal person stays alive for a while.
7
So many people have this attitude and it makes me sad. Like the person on a thread yesterday who said he was suicidal and someone said if you're going to kill yourself, don't jump in front of a train because it will inconvenience so many people. Are delays annoying? Sure. But damn that's cold.
4
This attitude will become increasingly prevalent as time equals money in both professional and recreational portions of peoples' lives and as the economy/job market becomes even tighter.
2
Delays are annoying, but there's at least one person at the front of that train, in control of it. And they will see the face of the jumper, and they WILL feel responsible. And while the jumpers suffering is over, they've passed it on to a man or women who did nothing but go to work that day. It's selfish to force that pain you're feeling on to someone innocent and forcing them to live with it because you can't.
1
Right because forcing others to witness your death isn't selfish or inconsiderate.
-1
as someone with what is probably a generalized anxiety disorder who takes the subway daily but often gets off because I'm freaking out too much about being on the subway and gets delayed for work....
I really like learning about how these things go down, kinda nice to know that it will be an hour, that way I can just find a spot on the floor and nap or close my eyes and just try and relax.
Thanks for the details.
3
On this train too. You were probably near me. The driver didn't give the diabetic oranges, another passenger did (a guy who was pretty verbally annoyed at the situation, but I digress.)
2
Sorry, but what do you mean by "the Pape situation"? Is all you mean that the "personal injury" happened at Pape?
1
Yeah, I mean the notice about the "personal injury at track level" at Pape Station.
2
[deleted]
-10
The jumper was at St. George. The trains were still holding after we evacuated since power was cut, so it wasn't because of that. The TTC supervisor said they had to evacuate us since it had been one hour.
4
At one point, a diabetic woman asked the driver if he had anything in the first aid for her, because her blood sugar was getting dangerously low.
Sounds like an attention whore.
-35
Well that was downright orderly, professional and organized. It sucks you had to wait an hour though. They don't want people on the tracks if there's a likelihood that the track could clear in the short term (however that's defined) as it takes alot of coordination and preparation to prepare a train for evacuation. In that time, you might as well sit on the train while they sort out what's going to happen. Also, the train can't move if the power is out, so even if they wanted to make things easier for you guys, there's not a lot they can do if the train is stuck in the tunnel.
Power to trains is in "blocks." For example, Landsdowne to Bathurst is in a "block" and when power gets shut off anywhere in that zone, it affects the whole zone. So they can't power on one small area to move trains because that would energize all of the area (even the accident zone).
13
I was on a train once that hit a person at Ossington, with only the first door of the first car having access to the platform. We were held on the train for about 10 mins before we had any clue what was going on. We were just told there was a delay. Eventually we were evacuated through the first door, while hearing a helpless individual yell from under the train: "Help me! Help me!" It was a traumatic experience to say the least, after which I did a lot of researching into these sorts of incident on the TTC. Like others have already mentioned, personal injury at track level means a passenger was hit by a train, or somehow otherwise injured on the tracks. Often that means a suicide attempt. In the case of a personal injury at track level it is policy for them to shut off the power and keep people on the trains until it is deemed safe for them to evacuate you. Trust me, the TTC has no desire to keep people locked on the trains for any extended period of time if they can help it. At certain times there is only so much information a driver can give you, because as things happen in real time, they only have limited information themselves. You have to realize that it takes time to respond to these situations. They have to put a whole emergency plan into action and mobilize lots of people: Fire dept. EMS, TTC Police, TPS, supervisors, busses with drivers for shuttle service, etc etc. These people need to first be found, then they need to get to where they need to go. Then they need to assess the situation, what is going on? What do we need to do? Where are the trains/passengers? What is the safest way for us to get them out? They try to do it as quickly as possible, but it takes time. I.e, you have to be patient, but it's for your own protection. People don't understand the dangers, even if you are only 5 meters from the station. They don't have these policies just to annoy us. By attempting to evacuate yourself by just leaving the train on your own, you'll only make the situation a lot more difficult for the TTC and cause greater delays for the rest of the passengers in the system. It is important to just let them do their jobs, so that they don't have to worry about anything but resolving the problem as quickly as possible.
9
I wholeheartedly agree. The driver gave us updates whenever he got any information (since I was at the back of the train, we could hear his radio), and the TTC staff were nothing but apologetic and polite. They got through it as quickly as they could, but given the number of trains and people on the line at 6:00 PM, we knew it wasn't going to be a quick fix.
3
There are just a lot of unreasonable, impatient people out there I guess, who expect to get everything they want right away. I mainly just found my way here because an article on The Star's website quoted your video/post. A lot of the comments on that article are all about how terrible and incompetent the TTC is because they kept you on the train. They don't realize the amount of work that goes in to organizing the backup plan for an event like this. That the system is able to carry on, almost as normal, with only a minor delay is pretty impressive for any organization that has to operate over such a wide area. This shows that they are in fact highly competent and organized. In many other cities people would still be stuck on the trains now.
4
London Underground response to a one under (specifically at 5:35): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1clmiv_the-tube-2012-1x03-emergency-response_travel
2
Watching that gave me the creeps from my experience! but thanks for the link though, it was interesting. Like you can see, a response to an event like that takes a lot of different people needing to work together.
1
I was on that train too. I wonder what happened. The platforms at St. George get so crowded during rush hour, and I am amazed that few people ever fall off. I think the TTC really needs to revisit platform doors at its most crowded stations.
6
I've always wondered what it would be like to spend a night underground in the subway tunnels.
5
In one word, uncomfortable. I used to work a night shift at the TTC, and part of the job involved being in the tunnels after service hours.
It is extremely dusty, quite humid in the summer, and a few times you would see mice/rats scurrying in the corners.
10
A FEW times? I see mice on the tracks all the time
8
I've always wondered what it would be like to ride my bike through the tunnels late at night. I think it'd be fun!
3
I've participated in lots of emergency exercises underground. The sheppard line is fantastic, clean, nice wide catwalks, etc. The rest of the system is freakin disgusting. Do not touch the walls, do not brush against anything. The air sucks, every sound is amplified, lots of tripping hazards, lots of rodents, garbage, standing water. You'll do better to enjoy it from the platform.
2
What was the tunnel like? Was it easy to walk in?
3
We only walked a few metres from the first steps down to the steps leading to the platform. It was flat cement, and it was very dusty. We were on the side, so we weren't walking anywhere near the tracks. The TTC workers you see to the right in the video stood on the closest rail to guide people and shine flashlights on the path.
4
Wow I got lucky! I must have been on the train right behind you because we lost power with the doors open at queens park. Nobody was telling us if it would be a long or short wait, so after 10 min I just left and took a streetcar before a big crowd would form.
Thanks for taking the video though, I was wondering what would happen if we got stuck in the tunnel
3
Killer footage.
1
What happens if you are not interested in waiting an hour and leave?
1
Unauthorized at track level will get you arrested. Not to mention you've probably been seen by over a dozen cameras doing that and TPS will try to identify you and charge you.
10
Certainty under some circumstances that would change. Presumably nobody agreed to be held for an hour.
-1
True, but it would generate a lot of negative press and probably cause them to reassess the policy.
-2
Not really. Safety beats impatience anytime.
9
I guess you could try to force open the doors, but they kept the train shut until the evacuation.
2
You don't really have to force them.
0
[deleted]
-4
Hmm, I can't afford $500.
3
Looks like a new train with the evacuation ramps. I wonder why they make you go out the side door?
1
We were so close to the station that there was a ledge by the door, then a short path to the platform. If we went out the front, we'd have to walk on the tracks and cross the rails. I don't know how long the ramp is, but it might even mean we'd have to double back to reach where the stairs up to the platform were. Since we were so close, I think this was just a more direct path.
1
and?
-14
that diabetic woman didn't have an insulin pump, or any 'emergency' sugar snacks in her purse? She's askin for it
-14
She said she normally carries snacks. She had a large Mocha with her when she got on the train, and thought that would be more than enough to last until her destination. She was meeting her boyfriend at Yorkdale for dinner. She got on the train at Queen's Park. Didn't even make it one stop before the power was cut.
8
large Mocha with her when she got on the train
Exactly the type of food a diabetic should have on hand...
-13
Sounds like you are the judge of diabetic life. Next time you have to jab yourself with needles and eat food like medicine every day for your whole life you can take some time to judge other people
16
Wouldn't the caffeine in the mocha actually aggravate her condition though?
1
I'm sure she knows more about her personal health concerns than we do.
10
And I'm likely more familiar with pancreatic function than you are. You have no idea how undereducated some type 1 diabetics are.
-7
I was on this train. To the people behind me who were talking about Iceland and were surprised it was a nice place - did you not watch Mighty Ducks 2 when you were a kid?
Greenland = ice
Iceland = green
I was under the impression all Canadian youth had seen the Mighty Ducks movies.
Yes, this has been bothering me all night.
Greenland is covered with ice, and Iceland is very nice :)
Hey EricGMW, nice night for a stroll wouldn't you say?
Their winters seem milder than ours.
Keep in mind they go through almost 24 hour nights
That maritime climate.
i wonder if they were talking about this because they saw the advertisement on the trains about iceland
Actually I'd say Iceland is more black and less green in many areas. Basalt and all.