I suppose we often say that things were simpler long ago and sometimes that is right as two reports this morning remind me.
In the ‘old days’ when trains broke down within sight of a station, you waited patiently for a little while and then opened the doors, climbed out if you could and hoofed it along the track to the station. I’ve done that myself at least a couple of times. But you can’t do that easily these days as there are few ‘slam-door’ trains left. Most of them now have electrically-operated doors controlled by the driver.
So when a rush-hour train from Kings Cross to Cambridge conked out on Friday evening, around fifteen passengers got fed-up with waiting more than thirty minutes, forced open a door, climbed out and walked 500 metres along the track to Foxton station. You’d have thought ‘Good luck to them!’ but the driver thought otherwise, locked the other 360 passengers in with a warning that they could be arrested if they tried to leave the train, and then called the police.
The first set of trapped passengers were released from the blacked-out train ninety minutes after it broke down and ferried, not to Foxton nearby, but back to Royston. Nearly three hours after the train broke down, the others were ferried back to Royston again where a fleet of 28 buses took them all to Cambridge.
I suppose that in the case of this train, there might have been a risk that some dimwit escaping from the trapped train might have fallen over and injured himself so, possibly, First Capital Connect were right to lock the other passengers in.
On the other hand, contrast the 32 ladies of the Bucknell Women’s Institute who for the last quarter of a century have tended a garden alongside their local railway station, even winning a Wales in Bloom award in 1992.
But no longer. For Network Rail has told them that they need to complete a detailed risk assessment, arrange insurance, sign a five-page licence that would restrict their activities, undergo safety training and fence off their garden. And all this for a station that has eight trains a day travelling at two miles an hour because of a level crossing nearby.
What a farce!
.
In the ‘old days’ when trains broke down within sight of a station, you waited patiently for a little while and then opened the doors, climbed out if you could and hoofed it along the track to the station. I’ve done that myself at least a couple of times. But you can’t do that easily these days as there are few ‘slam-door’ trains left. Most of them now have electrically-operated doors controlled by the driver.
So when a rush-hour train from Kings Cross to Cambridge conked out on Friday evening, around fifteen passengers got fed-up with waiting more than thirty minutes, forced open a door, climbed out and walked 500 metres along the track to Foxton station. You’d have thought ‘Good luck to them!’ but the driver thought otherwise, locked the other 360 passengers in with a warning that they could be arrested if they tried to leave the train, and then called the police.
The first set of trapped passengers were released from the blacked-out train ninety minutes after it broke down and ferried, not to Foxton nearby, but back to Royston. Nearly three hours after the train broke down, the others were ferried back to Royston again where a fleet of 28 buses took them all to Cambridge.
I suppose that in the case of this train, there might have been a risk that some dimwit escaping from the trapped train might have fallen over and injured himself so, possibly, First Capital Connect were right to lock the other passengers in.
On the other hand, contrast the 32 ladies of the Bucknell Women’s Institute who for the last quarter of a century have tended a garden alongside their local railway station, even winning a Wales in Bloom award in 1992.
But no longer. For Network Rail has told them that they need to complete a detailed risk assessment, arrange insurance, sign a five-page licence that would restrict their activities, undergo safety training and fence off their garden. And all this for a station that has eight trains a day travelling at two miles an hour because of a level crossing nearby.
What a farce!
.
No comments:
Post a Comment