Fire at Sheppards Bush

Don't know anything about the incident. Completely guessing - could it have come from the bottom of the train - something with too much grease overheating?

But, why doesn't LU use automatic "station closed - do not stop" signs for trains at the headwalls of platforms, linked to the fire alarm system, similar to the notices which light up at the station entrances??

The yellow boards which get opened by platform staff might lead to a delay, causing passengers to step into a potential hazard, if an alarm had just been activated, before staff have a chance to reach the platform/relay a message to trains.

Two pictures at jamesgalbraithphotography.co.uk/photos/thumbnails.php?album=9

LU's fire alarm system has two stages, so an evacuation isn't always the immediate answer.

Going a little deeper into the subject, LU has set procedures and in the case of an evacuation, one of the methods can be to evacuate by train - if the fire alarm system automatically made trains non stop, we'd have a problem. Non stopping trains could also cause a fan affect which could make a bad situation worse. It all depends on the incident; where it is, how severe it is, etc, etc.

In any case, one of the first actions taken by station staff will be to call the line controller (there are specific emergency numbers which get priority attention from line controllers) - so the line controller would be made aware very quickly, then in consultation with station staff (being the people on the ground, and who will have an indication of the location within the station from their fire control panel) a decision will be made on what to do with the train service. This will then be immediately communicated to drivers by the line controller.

Now the train you were on may well have arrived during the time that the station staff & line controller were having this conversation - in which case I'm afraid that's just bad luck.

Station evacuations have to managed - particularly at busy zone 1 (or even zone 2 to 4) stations - there can be many variables at play and the response to each incident is also variable to suit, within the procedures I've touched on above.

A bit OT: when a Scandinavian bus company won the contract for route 283 back in around 1985/6 they spelt it 'Schepherds Bush' on the destination blinds :-)

2 Pics I took.

Surely the correct spelling of Shepherd's Bush is "with" the apostrophe ;D ;D ;D

Absolutely spot on Chris M.

But the whole subject of apostrophes is a real can of worms and not one I would wish to go into here - maybe it has already been covered elsewhere on this site before?

Anomolies include Regent's Park (modern signs) and Regents Park (tiled signs). Colliers Wood is now as it is spelt here but before the 1990s refurb, (some/all?) trackside roundels were spelt Collier's Wood.

One method of evacuating a burning station could be to take people away by train, so automatic non-stopping might not be the thing to do.