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Title: Ascot station users face half-mile walk because of wet leaves Post by: Chris from Nailsea on December 08, 2013, 21:48:33 From the BBC (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-25280760):
Quote Ascot station users face half-mile walk because of wet leaves Rail commuters face a half-mile detour after a footpath was closed because of wet leaves. The path between Ascot railway station and the town's high street was closed by South West Trains last month. South West Trains - Network Rail Alliance said: "We do not believe it is safe for our passengers to use this path to enter and exit the station." It said the path would only be opened during special events when "extra staff were available at the station". Ascot and Cheapside councillor David Hilton, said: "It's difficult to understand, it's never been closed before because of leaves. It's taking a parental view of people making choices. At night you might not choose to use it, but during the day time I still think that it's a path that's of value to local residents." Title: Re: Ascot station users face half-mile walk because of wet leaves Post by: ChrisB on December 09, 2013, 10:28:47 Just like reducing speed on their trains today - other TOCs leave it to the driver to decide how to drive
Title: Re: Ascot station users face half-mile walk because of wet leaves Post by: eightf48544 on December 09, 2013, 10:43:30 You would have thought that SWT make enough money to pay a couple of people to clear the path. It shouldn't cost more than ^500. But no the "bean counters" wouldn't allow it easier not to spend the money and inconvinience the passengers. Probably afraid of being sued if they cleared it and someone still slips.
However, to start a debate, I thought I'd heard that judges were beginning to take a different line on this and provided there are signs saying you do so at your own risk then the owner is covered. Title: Re: Ascot station users face half-mile walk because of wet leaves Post by: stuving on December 09, 2013, 11:17:38 While it's probably true that this is nannyism, I do think the complaints are a bit overdone.
Assuming this is the path straight up to the High Street, it only saves about 170 m compared to the road that is right next to it. Most of Ascot is, of course, ten times further than that. The path and the road are used on race days for crowd management - one queue down each for the up and down platforms. Otherwise I suspect they might want to close it altogether as saves so little distance. I wonder if they intend to turn off the lights along there as well - that would save a bit, too. Title: Re: Ascot station users face half-mile walk because of wet leaves Post by: Southern Stag on December 09, 2013, 12:47:30 This path has been signposted as racedays only, even though it has been open normally. As stuving says, it certainly isn't a half mile detour to avoid it. I can see that the path is quite dangerous too, it's has got quite a steep section which must be very slippery with lots of leaves on it. It surprises me that the footpath is the responsibility of the railway at all tbh, apart from linking to the railway station at one end it doesn't really have anything to do with the railway, you'd have thought it was more naturally the responsibility of the local council.
Title: Re: Ascot station users face half-mile walk because of wet leaves Post by: Tim on December 09, 2013, 13:09:10 The distance saved is only 170m. the time saved would be 4 or 5 minutes.
Given that the railway is capable of spending millions of pounds raising line speeds in order to save 4 or 5 minutes, and the cost of HS2 is justified in terms of journey time savings, upgrading a footpath to acceptable safety standards would seem like exceptionally good value if the numbers were fed into the cost/benefit equations used by DfT. Title: Re: Ascot station users face half-mile walk because of wet leaves Post by: stuving on December 09, 2013, 13:20:36 It surprises me that the footpath is the responsibility of the railway at all tbh, apart from linking to the railway station at one end it doesn't really have anything to do with the railway, you'd have thought it was more naturally the responsibility of the local council. Given how it has been closed, presumably it isn't listed as a public footpath. The lack of a mention of that in the news item suggests the same. I suspect the land belongs to the racecourse, and it is made available, or leased, to the railway for race day crowd handling. This page is printed from the "Coffee Shop" forum at http://gwr.passenger.chat which is provided by a customer of Great Western Railway. Views expressed are those of the individual posters concerned. Visit www.gwr.com for the official Great Western Railway website. Please contact the administrators of this site if you feel that content provided contravenes our posting rules ( see http://railcustomer.info/1761 ). The forum is hosted by Well House Consultants - http://www.wellho.net |