Ban on e-scooters on trains due to fire risk concerns
Southeastern is set to ban escooters from its trains over fire safety concerns.
The operator will not allow the vehicles on its services from June 1 due to fears their “extremely dangerous” lithium batteries may start fires on carriages.
The move comes after instances of the scooters overheating and igniting, something which has already been recorded across different train operators.
They were banned from the London Underground in 2021 after one burst into flames on a District line service. Southeastern say they understood that, if a battery were to catch fire on a train, it could melt through the floor of the carriage, as well as causing passengers to panic and attempt to escape the danger area, which would potentially cause injuries.
A spokesman for the train
company said: “We have concerns over the safety of the lithium batteries used on e-scooters, and there have been some isolated incidents across the railway network where they have caught fire.
“If this was to happen onboard one of our trains it would obviously be extremely dangerous.
“It’s not a risk we are prepared to take, and so we’ve decided to ban e-scooters from June 1 until we can be sure they are safe.
“We’ll be rolling out our customer communications in the coming weeks to notify passengers about the change in our policy.”
Several other train companies already have a ban in place, including Transport for London, LNER, Avanti West Coast, TransPennine Express and Northern.
Sotheastern explained that the fires created by e-scooters burn at such heat that fire extinguishers have no effect on them. They can continue to rage even after being submerged in water.
Just last month, a dog was killed and a man injured in a flat fire caused by an e-scooter while it was being charged. Kevin Record, of Sheerness High Street, was woken by his XL American Bully, called Shogun, and says he owes his life to the hero dog.
Speaking from hospital, where he was being treated for burns, he said: “I was a real advocate of e-scooters, but I wouldn’t ever buy anything like that again after going through this.”