Major problems at London Bridge on Tuesday 3rd March

[BzRail]

....Also if there are crowds and people are at the front being crushed then where is the outrage for those at the back and middle who, through their own selfishness, were obviously pushing forward and wanting to get a train at any cost? Just how desperate are you to get home that oyu have to do that? Id have gone to the pub or at least went back outside to get out of it and wait.

Tuesday was the second day in a row with a large crowd and only one or two ticket gates open. When I was there I experienced no crush or bad/selfish behaviour from anybody. People were just slowly moving toward the open gates, occasionally bumping into each other but that is quite normal in the circumstances.

The only problem on Monday was that a gate was open near the end of one of the rows and people were queueing to get through. For some reason the platform staff then disabled that gate and opened another towards the other end. This meant those at the front of the queue no longer were, and had to move sideways. This was potentially dangerous but fortunately everyone was okay. There was however a lot of shouting at staff to explain why they had done it and to open other gates.

That was my experience, cosy but not dangerous. Can't speak for others though.

 

[Bald Rick]

Also if there are crowds and people are at the front being crushed then where is the outrage for those at the back and middle who, through their own selfishness, were obviously pushing forward and wanting to get a train at any cost? Just how desperate are you to get home that oyu have to do that? Id have gone to the pub or at least went back outside to get out of it and wait.

There was no crush. I've seen the CCTV and still pictures and can confirm that. The (very few) people jumping the barrier were doing it to get on to the platform before others, not to avoid being hurt. Indeed the people stood directly behind them had plenty of space and some were laughing at the spectacle.

What did happen is that some passengers took matters into their own hands by removing / dismantling crowd control barriers, specifically those designed to segregate flows and keep a clear path for passengers requiring mobility assistance. This directly led to the decision to close the doors of the station until the concourse cleared so that the clear areas could be reinstated.

But of course that won't make the evening standard.

 

[hwl]

There was no crush. I've seen the CCTV and still pictures and can confirm that. The (very few) people jumping the barrier were doing it to get on to the platform before others, not to avoid being hurt. Indeed the people stood directly behind them had plenty of space and some were laughing at the spectacle.

What did happen is that some passengers took matters into their own hands by removing / dismantling crowd control barriers, specifically those designed to segregate flows and keep a clear path for passengers requiring mobility assistance. This directly led to the decision to close the doors of the station until the concourse cleared so that the clear areas could be reinstated.

But of course that won't make the evening standard.

As a (regular) passenger who was there I completely agree with this, the gate vaulting was so they could get to their trains not because of the crowding.

 

[Deepgreen]

There was no crush. I've seen the CCTV and still pictures and can confirm that. The (very few) people jumping the barrier were doing it to get on to the platform before others, not to avoid being hurt. Indeed the people stood directly behind them had plenty of space and some were laughing at the spectacle.

What did happen is that some passengers took matters into their own hands by removing / dismantling crowd control barriers, specifically those designed to segregate flows and keep a clear path for passengers requiring mobility assistance. This directly led to the decision to close the doors of the station until the concourse cleared so that the clear areas could be reinstated.

But of course that won't make the evening standard.

You're right - the Standard does like a story! However, as someone who wasn't there at the time, was there a safety reason behind all/nearly all the gates being closed and therefore not allowing those passengers who did have trains available to get to them? Were the platforms really that full already?

 

[talldave]

Being caught in the mayhem at Victoria, I did hear a manual announcement advising passengers to use London Bridge. In view of the current issues with London Bridge I thought that was a bit weird and was the last place I was going. With a combination of a bus, walking and tube I got to Blackfriars and impersonated a sardine for over an hour on a packed Thameslink train in order to get to Gatwick. It took a while but apart from the crush was easy. For anyone wanting Gatwick, Thameslink was the obvious alternative; maybe this was announced at some point at Victoria - once I'd realised what was happening I didn't hang around to find out.

 

[BzRail]

You're right - the Standard does like a story! However, as someone who wasn't there at the time, was there a safety reason behind all/nearly all the gates being closed and therefore not allowing those passengers who did have trains available to get to them? Were the platforms really that full already?

Personally, having only been there for a period of 40 minutes and without the benefit of CCTV, I would say there was plenty of space on and around the platforms. There was some crowding just after the barriers and around the platform displays.

Again a personal opinion, without being a crowd control expert, I think it would have been much better and safer with all the barriers open allowing people to circulate in and out. Once you start herding and kettling people they will think the only chance of getting home is to get through the barriers asap just in case their train comes and goes. With free circulation the imperative to does this recedes. If it was easy to get back out again, some make take another route home, self regulating the crowd.

Anyway, just an opinion. Feel free to disagree.

 

[Clip]

There was no crush. I've seen the CCTV and still pictures and can confirm that. The (very few) people jumping the barrier were doing it to get on to the platform before others, not to avoid being hurt. Indeed the people stood directly behind them had plenty of space and some were laughing at the spectacle.

What did happen is that some passengers took matters into their own hands by removing / dismantling crowd control barriers, specifically those designed to segregate flows and keep a clear path for passengers requiring mobility assistance. This directly led to the decision to close the doors of the station until the concourse cleared so that the clear areas could be reinstated.

But of course that won't make the evening standard.

Interesting stuff thanks for the confirmation - was only going off what poster had written here and also the media reporting of it.