§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what recent reports he has received on the safety of Kings Cross station in respect of the ventilation of smoke; and if he will make a statement. [149099]
§ Mr. HillI understand from London Underground that the magazine Test has published comparisons of fire safety at various European stations, which included Kings Cross. It should be noted that, while the Test report contains some very valid points, it also appears to contain some errors in its description of escape routes from Kings Cross and takes no account of the following points.
The basic controls against the risk of smoke at Kings Cross are the same as those on the rest of London Underground.
- 1. Minimisation of potential sources of ignition, in particular strict enforcement of the ban on smoking;
- 2. Very careful selection of materials for the construction of stations and trains to minimise the degree to which they can support combustion and give off toxic fumes and smoke if affected by a fire. At Kings Cross, all materials used since 1989 have been subject to these controls;
4W - 3. In areas of higher risk such as machine rooms and stores, the provision of automatic fire detection and, particularly in the case of escalators, automatic fire suppression systems; and
- 4. Well rehearsed evacuation routines, which are used if a fire is suspected. In the case of Kings Cross, evacuation is achieved within six minutes
It should also be noted that Kings Cross station is being redeveloped. This redevelopment will take into account modern practice in ventilation systems, in particular lessons learned from the Jubilee Line Extension project on active control of air-flows in an emergency.
To summarise, fife safety controls at Kings Cross are the best that London Underground can achieve within the current constraints of the site. However, they are compliant with relevant legislation and plans for further improvement are already in hand.