Interesting story. Not only about how groups behave, but about our acceptance of authority.

You say that the "leaders" were "starting to emerge", but I wonder whether, with the station so close and with the danger of getting out and walking so small (no live rail to tread on, on that extreme left-hand track) that the real leader had long since left the train.

I suspect that years ago (at the time of the Blitz spirit) he would not have been alone.