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A major disaster was narrowly averted on London Underground this morning when a driverless train careered through six stations. The Charring Cross branch of the Northern Line remains suspended after an engineering train broke away at Archway at 5.25am. For 13 terrifying minutes staff desperately ordered trains to pass out stations and clear the way as the defective unit sped south - it only ground to a halt at Warren Street after it hit a steep gradient. Transport for London and the Rail Accident Investigation Bureau today launched an urgent investigation and banned similar engineering trains from the Underground network. The line is out between Finchley Central and Archway and Camden Town to Kennington via Charing Cross. LU said: "Throughout the incident, LU staff monitored the situation, including the position of passenger trains. LU staff moved to divert passenger trains to the City branch, and direct the engineering train to the Charing Cross branch where passenger trains had been cleared. Services on the Charing Cross branch of the Northern line were then suspended." The incident involved the suspension of the Northern line between Finchley Central and Archway and Camden Town to Kennington via Charing Cross - a suspension that was still in place by late morning. Pat Sikorski, assistant general secretary of the RMT transport union, said the incident "represents a safety failure of the highest order" and drew attention to the use of third party contractors and TfL's cuts programme.
LU director Richard Parry said:
"Safety is our top priority, and we have of course launched an immediate and thorough investigation into this incident to establish the cause. Once that investigation is complete, we will publish the report, making its conclusions and recommendations clear. In the meantime we have prohibited the use of this design of engineering train on the Underground. From the start of this incident, an immediate assessment was made and operational decisions taken to minimise the safety risk to our customers and staff. Our engineers are working to restore full services as soon as possible, and we apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers while we investigate this incident."
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