TUBE UNION RMT demanded urgent answers from London Underground chiefs today over massive breaches of safety that enabled two trains to end up narrowly avoiding a head on collision on a section of the Northern Line on Monday evening.

In the shocking incident on Monday, which reinforces RMT’s claims that a cuts and targets led culture on London Underground is compromising safety and which also exposes the lethal nonsense of driverless operation, a train out of Finchley Central was given a target speed to proceed out of the station and after approximately 2 train lengths was asked to apply an emergency brake.

Upon doing this the train operator became aware of a train approaching from Mill Hill which is a single track line. The driver was forced to take emergency action and to reverse and move back to Finchley Central, avoiding a potential head on collision with the train heading south on the same section of track. Both trains were in service and carrying passengers and it was only due to the swift action of the driver that a potentially fatal head on collision was avoided.

RMT has raised the issue directly with London Underground demanding answers to a range of questions, specifically how two trains could end up routed onto the same section of track into a potential collision environment and calling for a full safety investigation by the rail regulator, the ORR.

So far, London Underground have chosen to ignore the seriousness of the event, attempting to play it down and making a mockery of the stated commitment to staff and passenger safety.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“Nothing exposes the lethal gamble of driverless tube operation better than the incident on the Mill Hill line on Monday night. If it hadn’t been for the swift and decisive action of a Northern Line driver we could have had a head-on collision on our hands with fatal consequences. RMT will not allow tube chiefs to sweep this serious incident under the carpet and we are demanding a full investigation by the regulator to establish just how two tube trains ended up routed onto a single section of track travelling towards each other.

“With massive cuts in the pipeline under the Government spending review allocations to TFL, RMT is stepping up the safety fight. This union will not allow tube safety to be compromised by a cavalier management that choose to ignore the warnings and questions raised by our safety reps.”