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31
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All across the Great Western territory / Introductions and chat / Re: Health and safety - comparison with Czech Republic
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on: February 18, 2024, 07:33:08
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Fences along railway lines are not to keep the trains in ! they are to keep children and animals out, therefore the owners of the children or animals should pay for them.
However the majority of people struck by trains are adults taking their own lives and trespassers taking a short cut. An obstacle eg a fence is known to prevent suicides because the option is no longer easy.
One of the safety failings I think we have in the U.K. is that in some regions dispatch staff don't wear hi-vis jackets.
I thought it was a case if a TOC▸ supplies safety equipment you have to use it?
The main purpose of Hi-vis vests for train dispatch staff is at busy stations to aid the other dispatch staff and train drive to identify the dispatch staff in the crowds of passengers. My understanding is there is no personal safety reason for dispatch staff to ware Hi-vis |
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35
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: February 14, 2024, 07:25:05
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The junction is in obvious need of a visit from the tamper, and not just because the view exaggerates the wiggliness. The wiggles in the vertical direction are exactly what tampers are meant for, but is there enough spring force in the rails to straighten them in the horizontal plane as well, when lifted and shaken?
There may be some work left to be done with RRV▸ 's to dress and line up the rails. The new track will not have been stressed and finally welded yet this will allow the Tamper to iron out wiggles; once stressed and welded there will be at least one Tamper run booked in a few weeks after the line is reopened |
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36
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: February 12, 2024, 07:00:19
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By late afternoon, a section of new track has been put in, with two new motorised switches. But perhaps that should be called plain line, since the left-hand rail is continuous through places there should be a rail crossing. Less than twenty minutes later (photo 2), a slab of that new track has been hoicked out and now plain line is being laid round to the left, towards Bracknell, via a new track crossing on the other track.
Looking at how much track is still stacked up waiting to be used, it does seem that much of the track so far laid is temporary. So it seems the current method is to bring in an engineering train on one track, and rip out the rest, and replace the ballast with fresh. The final track panels are laid where possible, i.e. where remaining the old track is not in the way. In the gaps, temporary track panels are put down. to allow the remaining old track to be removed with a train alongside. Once all the new ballast is in place, even full-width track panels can be swapped in or out by crane from either end.
Close examination of the two big track panels in the foreground shows that the wider one, on top, fits just after the farther incomplete switch, and the one underneath comes after that. So there is a lot of temporary plain line where those panels will eventually be. The view from the footbridge at the station is of course highly foreshortened, disguising how long those panels are.
Normal practice on twin track is to use an adjacent one for engineering train(s) for scrap / waste and new ballast etc When those large panels go in place it be done with Kirow rail cranes |
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38
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Infrastructure problems in Thames Valley causing disruption elsewhere - ongoing, since Oct 2014
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on: February 11, 2024, 18:25:13
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Maidenhead station Platform 2 has recently undergone significant works to install fences and gates (which make it nigh on impossible to access a train quickly and which exacerbate crowding on the platform). Have these been installed as a suicide prevention measure? As II has said "Fast Line Safety Fencing" has been a safety measures on the RSSB▸ and ORR» list of improvements for a decade or so. As for accessing a train quickly the RSSB and ORR would put the point you should allow yourself sufficient time to safely board the train. Followup question: what is the logic on these measures as it is still possible to access the platform and, to my knowledge, no one has successfully attempted suicide from the platform in the past decade. All the while other ‘hotspots’ exist throughout the network. Suicides then not to happen when platforms are busy, its when its quite that these sad events happen, Maidenhead having such a low level of incidents and the planned works posible placed it lower on the list. There will come a time when the gates will be closed except for the norming peak services and when required when the Main Lines are used for stopping services. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Rail unions strike action 2022/2023/2024
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on: February 07, 2024, 20:52:58
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The words "passenger" and "customer" do not appear in the column ...
The words “passenger” and “customer” do not appear in the column because he is talking to “colleagues”. The foremost concern of all colleagues is the wholly unacceptable decimation of our terms and conditions, something that the government is totally aware of. The government believe that the cost of operating the UK▸ railway network, some £30bn, is a total waste of money. Their hate of rail is clearly evident. The likes of Mark Hopwood fully understand to increase revenue they need to increase services on existing routes and bring in new routes. The government continually blocks this and firmly believes to balance the books requires cuts to services. This frustrates not only a lot of TOCs▸ but also suppliers who are losing confidence in the rail industry and are turning their backs on it. The security isn’t there. That sort of position leads to spiralling costs. We need to shift from the current total anti-rail government to something that is more favourable and actually listens to the industry as a whole. The longer we stay as we are, the greater the damage being caused to the industry and the longer it will take to recover. a-driver I would go a step further this Government is anti public services full stop |
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Journey by Journey / South Western services / Re: Wokingham resignalling
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on: February 06, 2024, 11:06:14
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The gap in the third rail is rather odd, though.
If you mean the gaps by the switches (points) there are 2 reasons I can think of, first they look like HW point machines the drive rods protrude out and there is a risk of contact with the conrail forming a high impedance fault path also no conrail makes it easier to maintain the point ends and heater |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Labour to renationalise train operators with no compensation
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on: February 05, 2024, 14:30:19
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In all likelyhood, the difference we will see will be dictated by the whims of the government at the time and thus changes every 5 years.
Currently, we have one of the most anti-rail PMs in office. I don't believe there will be wholesale reform of fares, services or stock under any government spending plan. If the railways were fully nationalised today, the service would probably be remarkedly worse than it is.
And I don't really understand why Mick Lynch wants to see the railways fully under government control. Disputes will become more frequent as public servants. Or maybe that is why.
Nationalisation is therefore not a panacea.
The GBR▸ model is for the trains to be operated by the private sector under a management contract, the stations will be branded GBR. The services will be "operated by xyz on behalf of GBR" same model as London Overground and Elizabeth Line Its unlikely a Labour Government will depart from the above GBR model, it brings the overall control under one wholly Government owned company, but leave room for competitive tendering of the service provision to manage costs |
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All across the Great Western territory / The Wider Picture in the United Kingdom / Re: Labour to renationalise train operators with no compensation
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on: February 03, 2024, 19:36:55
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Political rhetoric in a lead up to a GE is one thing the practical delivery of a policy after the GE is another
This is the most important aspect. I have very little faith that any party will do what they promise they will. I'd like to understand what differences would customers notice if the TOCs▸ were renationalised and how would it improve the service they receive? Is anyone here able to clarify that? The schedule 8 payments would stop funding the bubbly at the share holders meeting and the excessive salaries paid to the senior executives of the TOCs, and just be used for the delay repay to passengers. The savings would mean either increased funding in renewals and enhancements or lower fares for passengers. The ability of the infrastructure maintainer to have access to the track for essential repairs around the last few trains at night without having to compensate TOCs again will be a great saving, the only cost would be providing the alternative transport for passengers (there will still be governance over this so it will not be a free for all for the infrastructure maintainer) Better coordination of timetabling, easier to alter the service area of a passenger train service provider |
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