Severe accidents in transport systems such as railways means mass evacuations often under time pressure, with immediate threats and in difficult circumstances, e.g. in case of a fire or if the evacuation must take place in a tunnel or on a bridge (e.g. HSE, 2001, Voeltzel, 2002). The frequency of such events is usually low but the consequences can be severe. However, mass evacuations occur quite frequently in situations where one or several trains are stopped because of track, vehicle or traffic management problem. In these evacuations passengers and staff are exposed to risks such as the possibility of being injured by electricity or other trains passing. In these cases, where there is no initial or immediate threat to the people on board, it can take a long time before the train will be evacuated, and this can create new risks. If the environmental conditions are poor, the conditions for the people on the train can, over time, become uncomfortable and even severe due to e.g. high temperatures and crowing. When time passes, the tendency of the passengers to evacuate spontaneously will increase. The purpose of this study was to get a better understanding of the different types of evacuation situations that can occur as well as a better understanding of passenger behaviour by use of a system safety view addressing the interaction of Human, Technology and Organisation, and to identify areas for improvement. Some areas in need of improvement are; communication, reduction of time delay in taking the decision to evacuate as well as executing the decision, and training of the staff.
