Emergency Vehicles at Amersham - 11/05/2010

The ERU attend all sorts of things from putting in temporary speed restrictions, to minor repairs on things like fencing or track side equipment right through to full on derailments, persons under trains, etc. Their remit is very much wide ranging and diverse, so just because an ERU vehicle is outside a station, it doesn't necessarily mean anything serious is going on.

The ERU is based at three locations, which I believe are Acton, Battersea and Camden Town. I also believe it is quite normal for only two of the three to be staffed at any one time. I happily stand corrected if any part of this paragraph is wrong though!

4 large ERU trucks and a smaller 4x4 were in attendance at Earl's Court this morning.

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Tottenham Hale was closed 2/9/2009 without replacement.

I believe the "blue light status" is imminent!

There are currently three depots, Acton, Battersea and Camden. The former depots at Tottenham and Vauxhall were closed about the time Battersea opened.

A train had a negative shoe missing and cables from the train were hanging off and touching the positive rail.

As an aside, emergency vehicles operated by Gothenberg Tramways (GS) have had blue light status for years.

Interesting that that the vehicles have blue lights, and yet to my knowledge the ERU and predecessors never have before. Of course, apart from the police, military police (and I assume RAF Police and Naval Provost), ambulances, bomb disposal, Blood Transfusion Service, Coast Guard, Fire Service (official services only now; no preserved and limos) and Mountain Rescue, the only vehicles with permitted blue lights appear to be the politicians' cars on the TV!

AIUI - blue lights are simply to warn you who's in the vehicle - the test as to whether you can jump red lights etc is down to the nature of the incident you are dealing with. Duress/emergency *can* (under very limited circumstances) be a defence to a speeding charge for anybody. More relevantly, a policeman has no defence to speeding if he was, eg in a hurry to the chip shop

Bomb disposal have blue lights - and according to my instructors on the bike test, nuclear types have flashing white light... (I am quite pleased never to have seen them)

Just to muddy the waters yet further, a bell, siren, gong or two tone horn maybe fitted to a vehicle used for;
fire brigade, police or ambulance purposes,
if used by a body formed primarily for fire salvage or similar purpose,
if used by the forestry commission or local authority for fighting fires,
bomb disposal, blood transfusion, Coastguard, mine rescue, mountain rescue and
the RNLI for launching lifeboats.
Only police, ambulance and fire brigade have an exemption from obeying speed limits when to do so would hinder the use for which the vehicle was being used.
As it stands at the moment TfL vehicles are NOT a fire and rescue authority vehicle.

It's perfectly true that under present legislation, ERU vehicles are not allowed to carry or use blue lights/sirens. That's why there is an attempt to change the law in parliament. Not so that Tube Lines can deliver a spare trainstop to Epping quicker; but to assist with emergency life-threatening situations. This was a recommendation after the 7th July bombings and is being championed by a GLA member,

There were recommendations from the Kings Cross fire not actioned 20 years after the event.

How do preserved fire engines get round that? Or cars acting the part of police cars in TV and film. (I recall reading that the producers of "The Bill" can use blue lights but have to dub the sirens on afterwards, which seems a sensible compromise)


It would take a long time for them to attend an incident on the Glasgow Subway!

Preserved fire engines cannot now be registered [with a tax disc accordingly] that says 'FIRE' and thus exempt from MoT and tax. This came about because of so many abuses, namely, as I understand, the operators who used old 'engines with crewcabs as limos. Only bona fide fire authorities airport fire services and authorised private fire and emergency companies [see TOP GEAR for example with the private fire engine used on filming work], are allowed the exemptions, and that may include the 1960s Bedford TK 'engine that Lyndhurst Fire Station have along the A35 from us. I gather that no blue lights are allowed as well.

In the case of filming and TV work, there may well be a licensing system which is rigidly controlled. As far as I know, vehicles are not allowed to have blue lights etc. on the public highway and have to have them removed or covered-up. This does not apply when vehicles are being displayed/shown.


After writing this, and a cup or two of tea made my my wife, I thought I would check further. Preserved vehicles are not allowed to have blue lights under any circumstances on the road but the Police may take the attitude that if no light is visible then that is acceptable. However, back in 2008 there was a petition raised on this point and this is the official response:
webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page17887

The Met Police and probably other forces have old police cars that are 'active' in their collections. These are deemed to be active-duty vehicles and thus can be used with all the equipment on.

My belief is that the TfL have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Met and City of London Police authorising them to have blue lights on ERU vehicles under conditions.

From the (out of date) article on the Tubelines website that I linked to earlier, the agreement with the police is that the ERU are given a blue light escort by the police when justified and required. This means that the ERU vehicles, which are not fitted with sirens or blue lights, are escorted to the incident site by police vehicles that are so fitted. I understand that the police can give an escort of this nature to any vehicle should the situation warrant.

Colin - are you sure that blue lights would necessitate the removal of the amber ones? Even if/when the ERU gain blue lights, they will not be used for all jobs. On those jobs that are not suitable for the use of blue lights, it may still be beneficial to display amber lights as at present.