Both trains were carrying passengers says union

The RMT union claimed the incident took place on Monday evening when a train pulling out of Finchley Central was asked to put on the emergency brake shortly before seeing a train approaching on the single track lane from Mill Hill East station.

The union said in a statement:

"Tube union RMT demanded urgent answers from London Underground chiefs today over massive breaches of safety that enabled two trains to end up narrowly avoiding a head on collision on a section of the Northern Line on Monday evening.

In the shocking incident on Monday, which reinforces RMT’s claims that a cuts and targets led culture on London Underground is compromising safety and which also exposes the lethal nonsense of driverless operation...

...a train out of Finchley Central was given a target speed to proceed out of the station and after approximately 2 train lengths was asked to apply an emergency brake.

Upon doing this the train operator became aware of a train approaching from Mill Hill which is a single track line.

The driver was forced to take emergency action and to reverse and move back to Finchley Central, avoiding a potential head on collision with the train heading south on the same section of track.

Both trains were in service and carrying passengers and it was only due to the swift action of the driver that a potentially fatal head on collision was avoided.