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Worcester_Passenger
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« on: April 15, 2014, 20:36:31 » |
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Journeycheck is reporting
18:22 London Paddington to Hereford due 21:34
This train has been delayed from London Paddington and is now 17 minutes late.
This train will be terminated at Colwall and restarted from Ledbury.
This is due to a train fault.
This seems very odd - can anyone shed any light?
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johoare
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« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2014, 21:31:54 » |
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Realtime trains says (and I quote) "This service was cancelled between Colwall and Hereford due to a problem with a coach (MI)."
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JayMac
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« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2014, 22:28:10 » |
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This seems very odd - can anyone shed any light?
Lights were the problem. No lighting in Coach C. Although why that meant terminating and re-starting is anyone's guess. For safety reason I assume passengers had to be moved from Coach C. There are some special evacuation rules for trains that pass through Ledbury Tunnel due to the narrow bore. This may have had some influence on whatever decisions were made at Colwall. |
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"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
- Sir Terry Pratchett.
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Btline
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« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2014, 22:54:02 » |
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Welcome to soft touch nanny state Britain, where - once again - tired commuters are dumped in the middle of nowhere, just to make life easier for FGW▸ towers.
The commuters should have mutinied as they have done before and demanded to be taken to Hereford. I hope all passengers are given at least their entire fair back.
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Southern Stag
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« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2014, 23:09:20 » |
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If it is necessary to evacuate an HST▸ in Ledbury tunnel is can only be done through the sliding power car doors because of the limited clearance in the tunnel. If for whatever reason evacuation was only possible through one end of the train or the other you'd have to move any passengers through the pitch black Coach C, which could be a serious impediment to a speedy evacuation. Would you want to be the person who authorised the train to proceed through the tunnel if something did go wrong? I doubt the train was particularly busy anyway and I'm sure alternative arrangements were made for any passengers who were left stranded, given that the train arrived at Colwall 10 minutes late but departed Ledbury 30 minutes late. That's plenty of time for the staff to make arrangements.
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John R
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« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2014, 23:12:03 » |
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I hope all passengers are given at least their entire fair back.
And that they didn't have a roundabout journey to get home. |
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Chris from Nailsea
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« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2014, 23:52:42 » |
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William Huskisson MP▸ was the first person to be killed by a train while crossing the tracks, in 1830. Many more have died in the same way since then. Don't take a chance: stop, look, listen.
"Level crossings are safe, unless they are used in an unsafe manner." Discuss.
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Btline
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« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2014, 08:54:30 » |
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If it is necessary to evacuate an HST▸ in Ledbury tunnel is can only be done through the sliding power car doors because of the limited clearance in the tunnel. If for whatever reason evacuation was only possible through one end of the train or the other you'd have to move any passengers through the pitch black Coach C, which could be a serious impediment to a speedy evacuation. Would you want to be the person who authorised the train to proceed through the tunnel if something did go wrong? I doubt the train was particularly busy anyway and I'm sure alternative arrangements were made for any passengers who were left stranded, given that the train arrived at Colwall 10 minutes late but departed Ledbury 30 minutes late. That's plenty of time for the staff to make arrangements.
Oh for pity's sake. Not good enough! There are light sticks in the carriages are there not? What are the chances of the train breaking down at this spot? 0.0001 |
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a-driver
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« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2014, 10:16:15 » |
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.... and the day there is an incident in the tunnel where people are injured or even killed I suppose the media, the UK▸ law system and yourself will dismiss the incident because there was just a 0.0001% chance of it happening.
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Btline
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« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2014, 15:12:04 » |
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People need to take responsibility for their own actions. Not having lights in one carriage is not going to kill people.
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ChrisB
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« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2014, 15:25:04 » |
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But they won't - and the courts agree.
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Southern Stag
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« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2014, 16:13:39 » |
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So when you need to get out of the train quickly do you want to be going through a carriage in the pitch black? It's certainly something I'd rather avoid.
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JayMac
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« Reply #12 on: April 16, 2014, 22:08:54 » |
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Serious incidents in tunnels, both rail and road, are well documented. Some where there have been major loss of life. Safety lessons are sadly often learned through loss of life. Ledbury Tunnel is a single bore, over a 3/4 mile long. So narrow that HST▸ carriage doors can not be opened more than a few inches. I for one am glad that there is a defined evacuation plan should the worst happen. I'm also glad that should that evacuation plan not be possible in potentia due to a fault, then staff will decide that no risk, no matter how small, is taken.
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"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
- Sir Terry Pratchett.
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Worcester_Passenger
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« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2014, 15:11:29 » |
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Fascinating - and I now know a lot more about this than when I posted the original question. There's a couple of things that I don't understand. Are the lightsticks the only emergency lighting in an HST▸ ? What happens in other types of trains? If it is necessary to evacuate an HST in Ledbury tunnel it can only be done through the sliding power car doors because of the limited clearance in the tunnel. If for whatever reason evacuation was only possible through one end of the train or the other you'd have to move any passengers through the pitch black Coach C, which could be a serious impediment to a speedy evacuation. I can see that you'd have to evacuate the train via the sliding doors in the power car - but I really can't see that being "speedy". Splitting the train and driving part of it out of the tunnel feels easier. Unlike the Eurostars, you haven't got articulated coaches to complicate matters. I suddenly have a vision of the Train Manager having to sit in the rear cab (as on a Eurostar) just in case. And a note to the moderators - perhaps this topic should be moved to the 'Frequent Posters' section, just in case the Health and Safety police decide to ban HSTs from operating west of Great Malvern. |
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JayMac
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« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2014, 15:27:47 » |
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Splitting a HST▸ is no easy job in an unlit tunnel with very little room to move around. Jumpers to disconnect, break pipes to disconnect and then seal. Brake pressure to be raised again to enable release. Not something a driver and train manager would even contemplate, or I suspect, are even trained for. It's not a quick job in a depot for a maintenance team in daylight.
I'd be fairly confident that the current special protocols for evacuating HSTs in Ledbury Tunnel are the best there are given the environment.
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"Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for the rest of the day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
- Sir Terry Pratchett.
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