Sadly there was yet another person hit by a train at Southall on
Monday evening (yesterday).

http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/co...c=669.msg87663

This is very sad - but why so many at Southall anyway? It does seem to
be a regular occurance.

Anyway you would have thought that First Great Western might have had
a contingency plan for such occurrences by now.

However the situation at Paddington was complete chaos. At 9.30 pm
when I s
was there all the destination board said was Delayed or Cancelled for
*every train* - Local, Intercity, and Airport.

The concourse was packed with late commuters trying to get home, yet
with no means of doing so.

There were no FGW or BAA HEX or Network Rail duty managers in sight.
Apparently they'd all gone home.

There were no extra staff drafted in to help inform the crowds.

There were no Transport Police / Community Officers in sight.

All of the gateline staff had gone home, and all the gates were left
open.

On the concourse one Information Desk was closed, on the other there
were just two staff to deal with the hoard of by now very frustrated
passengers. yet they had no information to give out except what was
displayed on the destination board - which said Delayed or Cancelled.
It was apparent that failing the appearance on any management no-one
knew what was going on and had no means of finding out.

There were no alternative transport arrangements available, i.e. with
coaches or buses, for getting airline travellers (laden with luggage)
to Heathrow - all of the BAA's HEX and CON services were all cancelled
to about 22.00. Hundreds of passengers must have missed their flights.

Southall has six lines / three pairs. If the incident affected say the
slow lines then there are at leastthe fast and freight lines that
could have been used as a local diversion. Even if the fast lines had
been affected then at least the slow and freight lines could have been
used.

Whilst it is sad that yet another person from Southall ws hit by a
train, it is unacceptable for Paddington to be reduced into chaos yet
again for the lack of any leadership or even appearance of any
managers or extra staff.

SB

One person has lost their life, many others will be affected for
months or possibly even years by the experience...but hey, some people
might get home an hour or two late! Oh no! Thats infinately more
important than making sure that there arent bits of body lying about,
or checking the need to preserve a possible crime scene - just send
trains along the other lines! Oh, and there must be loads of staff to
tell abusive passengers who cant comprehend announcements or displays
that no, they dont know when or if their train will run.

Sorry for being flippant, but it happens. Poor people in poor areas
end their miserable lives. People going home from work get delayed.
Trains are cancelled. Staff get shouted at because they dont have
crystal balls. Its not going to change, so my advice is to go and find
a café, have a sit down and stop being so angry when compared to the
poor unfortunate who died and the poor unfortunate's who have to clear
up the result you have VERY little to complain about.

On Apr 5, 2:31*am, Chris Sanderson wrote:
One person has lost their life, many others will be affected for
months or possibly even years by the experience...but hey, some people
might get home an hour or two late! Oh no! Thats infinately more
important than making sure that there arent bits of body lying about,
or checking the need to preserve a possible crime scene - just send
trains along the other lines! Oh, and there must be loads of staff to
tell abusive passengers who cant comprehend announcements or displays
that no, they dont know when or if their train will run.

Sorry for being flippant, but it happens. Poor people in poor areas
end their miserable lives. People going home from work get delayed.
Trains are cancelled. Staff get shouted at because they dont have
crystal balls. Its not going to change, so my advice is to go and find
a café, have a sit down and stop being so angry when compared to the
poor unfortunate who died and the poor unfortunate's who have to clear
up the result you have VERY little to complain about.

Maybe so, but its us what have to suffer the delays and the railways
should have a contingecy for when events like this happen but the
truth is theyre just not interested in going out of there way if its
going to cost them to bring in buses/coaches/taxis when they can just
put there hands up and say its network rails fault.

On Apr 5, 2:31*am, Chris Sanderson wrote:
One person has lost their life, many others will be affected for
months or possibly even years by the experience...but hey, some people
might get home an hour or two late! Oh no! Thats infinately more
important than making sure that there arent bits of body lying about,
or checking the need to preserve a possible crime scene - just send
trains along the other lines! Oh, and there must be loads of staff to
tell abusive passengers who cant comprehend announcements or displays
that no, they dont know when or if their train will run.

Sorry for being flippant, but it happens. Poor people in poor areas
end their miserable lives. People going home from work get delayed.
Trains are cancelled. Staff get shouted at because they dont have
crystal balls. Its not going to change, so my advice is to go and find
a café, have a sit down and stop being so angry when compared to the
poor unfortunate who died and the poor unfortunate's who have to clear
up the result you have VERY little to complain about.

Yes it happens, alas - that's why there should be some contingency
planning.
Tim

On Apr 5, 3:31*am, Chris Sanderson wrote:
One person has lost their life, many others will be affected for
months or possibly even years by the experience...but hey, some people
might get home an hour or two late! Oh no! Thats infinately more
important than making sure that there arent bits of body lying about,
or checking the need to preserve a possible crime scene - just send
trains along the other lines! Oh, and there must be loads of staff to
tell abusive passengers who cant comprehend announcements or displays
that no, they dont know when or if their train will run.

Sorry for being flippant, but it happens. Poor people in poor areas
end their miserable lives. People going home from work get delayed.
Trains are cancelled. Staff get shouted at because they dont have
crystal balls. Its not going to change, so my advice is to go and find
a café, have a sit down and stop being so angry when compared to the
poor unfortunate who died and the poor unfortunate's who have to clear
up the result you have VERY little to complain about.

Perhaps we should have declared a day of national mourning and stopped
all work from happening anywhere.

If everything is in chaos and nothing running at 21.00, for farther
flung destinations (Paddington is, after all, an intercity station),
we are starting to get into "last train" times. If you're a couple of
hundred miles from home and your only route home is cancelled, it's a
little more serious than "go to a cafe and come back later", because
"later" could well be tomorrow morning. Would you be happy to be
dumped in a railway station 200 miles from home overnight with nowhere
to stay under such circumstances?

It's not just a question of "damn the crime scene, get the trains
running", there are other railway lines and other ways of getting
there (eg via Waterloo, coaches).

Robin

On Apr 5, 9:31*am, bob wrote:

It's not just a question of "damn the crime scene, get the trains
running", there are other railway lines and other ways of getting
there (eg via Waterloo, coaches).

And a passenger is ill-advised to act outside staff advice at that
time of night, as if they're then stranded you can be sure "it's your
own fault" will be the answer. So there needed to be staff to decide
what to do and to confirm it to passengers.

Neil

Neil Williams wrote:

On Apr 5, 9:31*am, bob wrote:

It's not just a question of "damn the crime scene, get the trains
running", there are other railway lines and other ways of getting
there (eg via Waterloo, coaches).

And a passenger is ill-advised to act outside staff advice at that
time of night, as if they're then stranded you can be sure "it's your
own fault" will be the answer. So there needed to be staff to decide
what to do and to confirm it to passengers.

Until those investigating at the scene have actually said, "okay, we've
finished now" all rail staff can do is offer guesses, though.

Information about alternative routes home could also be overtaken by
events - e.g. people being directed to H&C line trains by fGW staff
could find them cancelled because of overcrowding.

It's very hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all answer in these
circumstances, apart from "keep calm and carry on".

--
..sig down for maintenance

On Apr 5, 11:12*am, Chris Tolley (ukonline
really) wrote:

Until those investigating at the scene have actually said, "okay, we've
finished now" all rail staff can do is offer guesses, though.

What they can do is offer the ability to say "we were told to do
that". Which can be very useful when someone gets stuck further down
the line.

They can also reassure people that they aren't being ignored. The LUL
requirement for a "we are being held at a red signal" announcement
after N minutes (N=2?) is a good example. It does not provide useful
information, but it does provide reassurance that someone gives a
monkeys about the passengers and they are not just an operational
inconvenience.

It's very hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all answer in these
circumstances, apart from "keep calm and carry on".

And reassurance. The human factor is very important, but often
neglected.

Oddly, said human factor can sometimes be provided via technology. I
find LM's Twitter feed very good for this.

Neil

On Apr 5, 11:12*am, Chris Tolley (ukonline
really) wrote:
Neil Williams wrote:
On Apr 5, 9:31 am, bob wrote:

It's not just a question of "damn the crime scene, get the trains
running", there are other railway lines and other ways of getting
there (eg via Waterloo, coaches).

And a passenger is ill-advised to act outside staff advice at that
time of night, as if they're then stranded you can be sure "it's your
own fault" will be the answer. *So there needed to be staff to decide
what to do and to confirm it to passengers.

Until those investigating at the scene have actually said, "okay, we've
finished now" all rail staff can do is offer guesses, though.

Information about alternative routes home could also be overtaken by
events - e.g. people being directed to H&C line trains by fGW staff
could find them cancelled because of overcrowding.

It's very hard to come up with a one-size-fits-all answer in these
circumstances, apart from "keep calm and carry on".

The problem is the railways are not following a "keep calm, carry on"
approach, they are following a "pack up and go home" approach, leaving
passengers stranded. There should be contingency plans for how to
deal with the closure of key points on the network, ready to act on
with half an hour's notice. It should be clear to management within
half an hour whether the situation is a "open again in a few minutes"
or "closed for the rest of the evening" situation. For management to
just sit on that information and neither pass it on, nor advise
passengers (who may have train-specific non flexible tickets) how to
go about getting home, nor give them advice on alternative routes that
are available, is bad management. Just sticking a "we're really
sorry, your train is cancelled" message on the information display is
not a contingency plan, and it's not keeping calm and carrying on.

Robin

"Chris Sanderson" wrote in message
...
One person has lost their life, many others will be affected for
months or possibly even years by the experience...but hey, some people
might get home an hour or two late! Oh no! Thats infinately more
important than making sure that there arent bits of body lying about,
or checking the need to preserve a possible crime scene - just send
trains along the other lines! Oh, and there must be loads of staff to
tell abusive passengers who cant comprehend announcements or displays
that no, they dont know when or if their train will run.

Sorry for being flippant, but it happens. Poor people in poor areas
end their miserable lives. People going home from work get delayed.
Trains are cancelled. Staff get shouted at because they dont have
crystal balls. Its not going to change, so my advice is to go and find
a café, have a sit down and stop being so angry when compared to the
poor unfortunate who died and the poor unfortunate's who have to clear
up the result you have VERY little to complain about.



If it happened once a year you might have a point. Sadly Paddington to
Reading seems to have rather a lot of fatalities, recently there were two in
a day. So it's hardly surprising that regular travellers will get fed up.

I've been lucky having only been affected by two, once on the train and once
stuck at Reading.

John