Guidance by the Office of Rail Regulation (published initially by HSE) states that this is what is required - mind you the whole document relates to the railway station and managing crowds etc not just painting a line: http://www.rail-reg.gov....d/pdf/rspg-2b-statns.pdf

I guess statistics would show that per year x number of people will fall from the platform & some of those falls will result in fatality. Is it a tolerable risk given the numbers of people travelling? If we were to introduce train stations now would we accept these conditions & level of risk? Station manning & crowd control improvements would reduce the risk. Barriers before the platform could be a possible countermeasure, as would any number of location specific risk reduction measures.

The newest stations on the London Underground are like that too. Although, I suspect, mainly to deter suicides rather than to prevent accidental falls.

I understand that there's about 50 incidents of persons under trains per annum, plus numerous other incidents where passengers fall and recover without a collision or coming into contact with live apparatus. However, don't even start to think about fire safety legislation and how it is interpreted on the London Underground. Very few of the 'usual' rule can be applied here Travel distances in 100s of metres, Unprotected spiral staircases - or escalators as a single vertical means of escape, limited AFD and none in tunnels, 1000 + people whose MOE from trains is to squeeze in single file along the length of the train before climbing 1.5m to an uneven floor then a walk of 0.5miles and another 1.5m clamber onto a platform, 3000+ passengers in one section of tunnel, no public access to extinguishers on trains, filthy uncleaned power cables in escape routes (tunnels)................ and so on. Nowhere else in London (the UK?) will you find such scary findings in a publicly accessible 'building'. I am not saying LU are not managing FS effectively as there have been huge improvements since Kings X fire.

Some weeks ago I saw a fascinating programme in a TV documentary series entitled “The Tube” about the London Underground. It included the fact that from time to time Tube employees are faced with the task of retrieving shoes from the tracks at stations. This is because some passengers, mostly young and female it has to be said, have poorly fitting shoes or sandals which tend to fly off their feet when they run or walk briskly. If this happens on station platforms, sometimes the footwear inadvertently falls off the platforms onto the tracks. The programme showed an instance of one employee physically climbing down onto the track to pick up a shoe after appropriate arrangements had been made to temporarily halt trains from approaching the platform involved. As the shoe was lying fairly near the side of the platform and not the live electric rail at the opposite side it was deemed reasonably safe for the shoe retrieval to be carried out during normal Tube operating hours rather than during a maintenance period with the power switched off. However, for retrieving shoes and other objects during normal hours, I wondered whether or not the need for employees to physically climb down onto the tracks could be eliminated in most cases by the provision and use of suitably long litter-picker devices, preferably made of insulated material. Also, such devices might slightly reduce the times by which trains have to be delayed for shoe retrievals. As my knowledge of railway safety procedures is limited, please could suitably experienced forum users comment on the practicability or otherwise of litter picker type devices? It’s possible that such devices are provided and used on the London Tube, other underground railways and perhaps at railway stations generally, and that the programme I saw showed an employee climbing down onto a track because, for some reason, there was no device available for him to use at the time. p.s. Rather than start a new thread to ask the above question it seemed better to use this existing thread - something I intended but forgot to do shortly after seeing the programme.

Ray Many thanks for your reply. In view of your considerable knowledge and experience. I had a strong hunch that you would answer my query. From what you describe about various types of objects, not just shoes, finding their way onto the tracks, it seems that retrieving them is a fairly common task for Tube employees. Also, I hadn't thought about owners of dropped items or other gallant but dimwitted passengers jumping down onto the tracks to retrieve such items themselves. In addition, I guess that some passengers who do contact employees about dropped items are very abusive to them if their precious shoes, mobiles or other possessions are not retrieved immediately. Another topic featured in the programme I mentioned was that Tube station employees had to contend with passengers (mostly young women) fainting while waiting on platforms. This was especially so during mornings because such passengers had skimped having breakfast and even drinking any fluid before leaving home for work. Just hope that passengers liable to faint keep away from open platform edges and thereby avoid falling onto the tracks! The programme also covered night-time maintenance work and related safe systems of work for aspects like electrical isolation of the power rails in the tunnels. In this respect, appropriate extracts from the series would surely be useful for OS&H training and refresher courses in various industry sectors. What also came across was a general dedication by Tube employees to trying to keep the underground system running effectively and conveying phenomenal numbers of passengers each day.

Please be aware that the yellow line on some platforms is not a method of controlling anyone from falling from the platform edge, it is an indication that it should not be passed due to higher speed trains passing through the platform and the risk of wind causing people to be dragged under/into the train as it goes through. The platform edge is painted with a white line on the edge to indicate that the platform ends. Tactile slabs are now being installed to all platform when they are upgraded to meet modern platform clearance distances for modern trains. All these new design features are mandated through modern Railway Group Standards which are agreed through subject committees within the rail industry and backed up by law.