London Underground

DELIVERING SAFER TRAVEL TO LONDON

September 2011 - The London Underground, inaugurated in 1863, is constantly being upgraded in terms of infrastructure, rolling stock and passenger areas, and in terms of improving overground rail links and modernising access for the disabled.

As the network and stations operator, London Underground was one of the earliest supporters of improved cable safety following the fire at the Kings Cross underground station in 1987. In fact, two years after the fire, the United Kingdom introduced a special law on railway station fire safety in order to minimise the amount of flammable products within the network, that produce poisonous gases and dense smoke and spread flames.

In 2011, the Prysmian and Draka fire performance cables were fully approved by London Underground, passing the operator’s stringent safety standards. The properties of these cables include continuity of power supply during fires, reduced spread of flames, very low emissions of toxic and corrosive gases, and an assured time frame for evacuation. Engineers and contractors can therefore specify and install Prysmian fire resistant cables throughout the London Underground network and stations, both overground and underground.

Image courtesy tompagenet (Tom Page) CC BY-SA 2.0