Leaves Again?

It is reported that on 8 November, a train from Charing Cross sped through one station and over a level-crossing in East Sussex and carried on for more than two miles before stopping. Because of leaves on the line.

I thought we had sorted out the ‘leaves on the line’ problem years ago?

Fortunately, the line was clear at the time and the level-crossing was closed to traffic. The Rail Accident Investigation Branch are now to carry out a full investigation to see went wrong.

I hope they report quickly, for it doesn’t bear thinking about what might happen if a similar incident occurs when the line ahead is not clear.
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A Farce

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!
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More Excuses?

A study by the University of Southampton and Network Rail, forecasts that wet winters and hot summers will become more common over the next fifty years as a result of global warming and that the UK rail network is at risk from this.

One hopes that railway managers and the government will take note of the report and act accordingly. On the other hand, will these sort of events just give some railway operators more excuses to explain why our trains are late?

We’ve had the leaves (and cows) on the track excuse, overhead power lines down due to high winds as well as the wrong type of snow complaint, but global warming?

Groan!
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Pointless Invective

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The proposed strike by signalmen (but only after the Easter holidays which accrues overtime!) belonging to the Rail Maritime and Transport Union has been averted following the granting of an injunction to Network Rail.

The reasons behind the strike, said to be about safe working practices, have been temporarily set aside in the acrimony that has followed.

Following the granting of the injunction, the General Secretary of the RMT said, ‘This judgement is an attack on the whole trade union movement and twists the anti-union laws even further in favour of the bosses. Workers fighting for the principle of a safe railway have had the whole weight of the law thrown against them’.

His comments were reinforced by the General Secretary of the TUC. ‘It’s becoming increasingly easy for employers, unhappy at the prospect of a dispute, to rely on the courts to intervene and nullify a democratic ballot for industrial action on a mere technicality.’

Note that neither of these gentlemen referred to the anomalies said to be contained in the RMT ballot results which suggested that there were flaws in 143 of the 828 workplaces identified by the union, including votes from eleven signal boxes which no longer exist. Or that in 67 of the signal boxes polled there were more votes cast than staff actually employed.

By all means have a strike if unions and management can’t meet and resolve their differences, but let the ballots be transparent and honest.

In the meantime, throwing invective at the judiciary makes no sense and achieves nothing!
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