Great Western Coffee Shop

3. Persons hit by trains, and their effect on services

Between 250 and 300 people are killed on the railways every year, a fair number of them by GWR trains.  Most of them are individuals intentionally taking their own lives, but the effect of friends and family, railway staff and customers and the wider community is nevertheless horrific and long to everlasting.

I know that the team at GWR takes this matter very seriously, but much of that is out of the public eye. Can Daryn tell us a little about how GWR is working to reduce the number of casualties and how we, as ears and eyes all over your network, can help.

Any loss of life on the railway is tragic, and on the advice of Samaritans – who we work very closely with – this isn’t something we talk about much publicly as it can lead to more incidents.  You’re right that we do take our responsibilities seriously and as well as working closely with the British Transport Police and local Police forces we work very closely with the Samaritans. 

All of our frontline colleagues complete safeguarding training and there are some remarkable stories of our station and on-board team members going above and beyond in intervention and saving people’s lives. 

We also support initiatives like Samaritans’ Brew Monday which encourages people to talk about how they are feeling, helping others to identify if someone is feeling vulnerable or at risk.

On physical infrastructure, we’ve collaborated with Network Rail on getting prevention fencing installed at key stations in the Thames Valley, most recently completed at Maidenhead.


We also recommend the Samaritans’ excellent Small Talk Saves Lives campaign, which includes signs to look out for and suggestions for how members of the public might approach someone they believe may be vulnerable: https://www.samaritans.org/support-us/campaign/small-talk-saves-lives/how-to-start-a-conversation/. 

I recall some research suggesting that blue lighting was helpful in reducing suicides. AFAIK, the general illumination had to be blue, a few blue lamps added to white lighting being found ineffective.

Would it be worth trying this at selected locations ? Affordable and efficient blue lamps are available in fluorescent, LED, and metal halide types.

Text I have typed from the recording of the Zoom session - please forgive typos.
DM - Daryn McCombe, GWR
TL - Thomas Lydon, GWR
GE - Graham Ellis
BC - Bryony Chetwode
CB - ChrisB

Question 3 - People hit by trains

GE: Intro - what can we do

DM: Distressing for of including me on LU in the past. Tragic and we work closely NR - note Graham drinking from our Sanitarian mug. Mandatory training for all colleagues. How to look out for / intervene. e.g. Brew Monday. Physical obstruction including hardening up railway to make access more difficult - Maidenhead for example.

BC: You were looking at AI - how far has that been rolled out - think it was to spot behaviours. Know it's used at local authorities experimentally at the moment.  Are there then processes in place and how fast are they acted on, or does it come like an awful spectator?

DM: I know we were exploring it but don't know the precise answer. I think (but working from memory) it's one of the options we are / were going to give to the DfT which they could purchase in the next budget round.  In CCTV more generally we are looking to set up a facility where wen can monitor more 24/7 and provide links into the help points. Again with the DfT in terms of being able to respond more quickly.

BC: May be interesting to talk to Transport for Greater Manchester - I was in their control tower about 10 days ago. They have it not only for fare dodging and drunks but also potentially violent behaviour. Just a pilot at the moment.

DM: One of the challenges at more remote locations is bandwidth; one of the first projects is making sure we upgrade all of that.  I will make sure Tom or I get an answer and let Graham know.

TL: What is not up there is the guidance to Samaritans as we don't talk about it in public because no-one wants to encourage more of this. We have some colleagues who have genuinely gone to incredible lengths. One colleague been involved with 38 instances and colleagues and NR etc - I can't remember the statistic off the top of my head, but for every fatality that does occur, the order of fatalities that are prevented is much higher. Our colleagues do a remarkable job. We have a link in on [the forum].  If you do see someone when you're out and about who you do feel is looking vulnerable and it's safe to do so, do engage in conversation or if not contact the emergency services.

GE: I find myself wondering if the reduction in staffing and booking office hours at various places and things like the forthcoming closure of the cafe at Warminster are helping to make the situation worse.

TL: I think I would gently challenge that. We have seen two very serious incidents / facilities at Didcot which has got multiple retail units and is staffed for very long hours and as much as people may strongly feel about this ... and it's worth remembering that even in the previous governments withdrawn proposals there was no change in planned staffing hours at stations so that's not something we're looking to do. Obviously there are times where we have sickness at stations but ...

GE: A reminder that in the Coffee Shop we have a couple of boards that are for frequents posters and transport scholars where we can go into a little more depth where we are not in public - between people who we know well and are well known to us.

DM: TL gave an excellent answer and our committent is to have staff on our stations and trains and we want to deploy those staff at the right place and at the right time.  Whether that is each station and each location, there will be a mix - ticket office/ gate line, platform, concourse.

GE: Couple of personal situations seen where the staff are putting the safety and care for their passengers ahead of continuing to run the train on time and that under a very small proportion of circumstances has to be absolutely the right thing to do.

All: Confirming the importance of safety, including as they go away from the station. GE: an onboard conflagration and a fear of assault once the train might have left an unmanned station.

DM: One of the great things about my job is that I get to review a great number of the commendations of staff put forward, staff going above and beyond.