50236 Safety of passengers during fire evacuations at Hull Paragon

February 2012 in Train Operations

Equipment Station and platform Work environment North East

A concern has been expressed that passengers are being allowed to alight from buses at Hull Paragon station during fire evacuations.  First TransPennine Express is responsible for managing both the station and the buses.

At Hull Paragon the bus bays run alongside the station.  During an evacuation passengers are being allowed off the buses and into the station area through the side doors, because the Bus Drivers do not receive a prior warning that the station is being evacuated.  The reporter believes that the safety of the passengers is at risk because they are being allowed into a building that could potentially be on fire.

During the day the Local Council provide Bus Coordinators whose fire duties include helping during an evacuation.  Although this provides an adequate number of staff to safely evacuate the station, it does not provide enough staff to also stop buses from entering the station and dropping off more passengers.  The reporter is concerned that during the evening and at a night the staffing levels drop to only four members which does not provide adequate cover to safely evacuate the station let alone stop the buses from dropping passengers off. 

The reporter would like First TransPennine Express to look at the possibility of:

• erecting a warning sign outside the station, so that the Bus Drivers have prior notice of when an evacuation is taking place;
• locking the side doors of the station when the fire alarm is sounding, to prevent passengers getting off buses from being able to enter the station;
• carrying out a practice evacuation during a busy period to test whether the staffing levels and procedures in place are sufficient and following this to provide staff with fire evacuation training if required; or
• implementing a contingency plan for diverting buses from Hull Paragon during an evacuation.

 Response from First TransPennine Express

First TransPennine Express (FTPE) would like to thank the reporter for raising their concern about passenger safety during station evacuations. It should be made clear that whilst FTPE are responsible for managing the station, they are not responsible for managing the buses. However, we do recognise the need to include this area within our evacuation process.

The Station Manager has met with representatives from all bus companies operating at the station to develop an evacuation plan for the bus part of the interchange.  This plan will be included as part of the overall evacuation plan for Hull Paragon and will be tested shortly to ensure the requirements can be met.

The reporter raises a number of suggestions which are commented on below:

• Erecting a warning sign outside the station, so that the Bus Drivers have prior notice of when an evacuation is taking place. The most effective method is to deploy a person at the entrance to the interchange in a high visibility vest to divert buses away from the interchange unloading bays.  The buses will then turn around at the bottom of the interchange and relocate to the Holiday Inn and allow passengers to alight there. The Bus Drivers will be notified by their Control that an evacuation is taking place and given instructions to follow.
• Locking the side doors of the station when the fire alarm is sounding to prevent passengers getting off buses from being able to enter the station.There is no current method of locking all the doors in one action.  Doors can only be closed one at a time and during an evacuation this would be too time consuming and not practicable.  It could also prevent egress of people evacuating the station.  By placing a Supervisor at the entrance to the interchange and diverting traffic, buses will be kept away from the unloading bays.
• Carrying out a practice evacuation during a busy period to test whether staffing levels and procedures in place are sufficient and following this to provide staff with fire evacuation training if required or implementing a contingency plan for diverting buses from Hull Paragon during an evacuation. A successful emergency evacuation drill has taken place to test the current plan.  Further drills will be timetabled.