§ Mr. BrakeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what safety440W advice was received from station staff at Swiss Cottage about the advisability of continuing services on the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines of the London Underground on 7 February; and if this advice was followed. [71083]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonAdvice from the Jubilee line was that, by implementing passenger flow control (in essence restricting the numbers of people entering the station) in accordance with the Swiss Cottage Station Emergency Plans, it was considered both safe and feasible to keep stations open and the train service operating. Trains were held at Finchley Road southbound to ensure that trains were not delayed in tunnels, and train operators were accompanied by managers to enable a quicker response should problems arise.
The Line Emergency Plan was put into operation by the Duty Operations Manager.
§ Mr. BrakeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions between what hours on Sunday 7 February water penetrated the Jubilee and Metropolitan tube line tunnels between Finchley Road and Swiss Cottage on the London Underground; and to what depth. [71081]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonThe full facts of the incident have yet to be totally established. As is usual, a formal London Underground Incident Investigation Report is to be carried out.
However, London Underground Limited (LUL) believe that a 150 mm diameter Thames Water water main burst above the LUL network. It is believed this burst occurred around 1600 hrs on 7 February 1999.
Water entered over time into both the Jubilee and Metropolitan Lines. The major water ingress was on to the Metropolitan Line Southbound in the Finchley Road area. A maximum depth of approximately 1.2 m was evident along a length of tunnel of some 5 m. This depth of flooding lasted some 13 hours in total during Sunday 7 February and Monday 8 February 1999.
§ Mr. BrakeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what safety procedures are in place in the event of water penetration into London Underground tunnels. [71082]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonLUL has significant procedures in place to deal with water penetration. Permanent pumping arrangements consist of in situ sumps, pumps and drains for clearing normal day to day ingress with sufficient additional design capacity to cover additional storm flows. In addition, research is ongoing to improve the technical knowledge required to deal with rising groundwater under London and various courses of action are being taken to deal with this.
As regards flooding from burst water mains etc., remote sensing from permanent pump locations give automatic warnings to local control rooms and in many cases this is also linked direct to the specialist internal pumps contractor located with key emergency resource at Griffith House in the Edgware Road area. As these alarms are raised, together with any visual reports from operational staff, the incident becomes identified and logged at Line Control Centre. The Line Controller will alert the line's engineering services help desk (or line service centre) 441W who will initiate the necessary emergency call-outs. Depending on the severity, additional engineering experience remains available on a 24 hour Duty roster.
In addition, special London Underground Safety Procedures are set out in the Incident Organisation Manual. This manual ensures provision for the safety of customers and employees and provides a fast and effective response to all types of incident with the objectives of containing the incident and minimising harm, loss of property and business and the potential loss of life.