On Oct 13, 10:21*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
, at
14:11:00 on Wed, 13 Oct 2010, MIG
remarked:

Passengers can generally find the platforms at a railway station, it's
not clear why emergency services staff can't. Especially if there are
hundreds of wounded people milling around.

On foot I could find the platform at, say, Euston. *Not so sure I
would automatically know the road access route to the platforms or be
able to get the gates open.

If Brazilian electricians[1] can vault over gates, so can the emergency
services.

(And Euston is perhaps a bad example as the Fire Station is literally
next door; meanwhile the District Line tracks at Edgware Road are a lot
more visible from the road, and I'd be surprised if the Fire Brigade
weren't shown round from time to time to check the place out.)

[1] Maybe we need a rider to Godwin's Law?

Just for the sake of the record, Mr de Menezes didn't ever vault over
the gate - he used an Oyster card like a normal passenger, because
that's exactly what he was. The idea that he vaulted over the gate may
have come about from an eye witness who saw one of the police who were
in pursuit - though of course subsequently it the impression it
created was allowed to stand, for a while at least.

Re the issue of opening the gates - for each gateline array there is
at least one emergency plunger (part of the control box) that will
open all the gates - also I think they are possibly interlocked with
the fire/ emegency/ evacuation alarm at the station, so if that's
triggered (and AIUI it's a level or two up from the Mr Sands PA
announcement) the gates should open. Lastly the gates aren't
completely tough - they can I think be 'negotiated' with a fairly
solid charging barge. (And I wouldn't be surprised to find that they
either open or go limp if all power is lost to them.)