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Someone was hit by a train at Cholsey at 07.26 on the main line this morning. Whilst my thoughts go out to the poor driver and the family, I am intrigued by two things.

Firstly, if it was on the mainline, why are the relief's also closed (and vice versa) - is it simply due to the debris field from the accident and/or the safety aspect of BTP etc being on the lines during the investigation ?

Secondly, the police arrived at Goring just after 9am, and evacuated everyone from all the platforms (1-4), even from the public walk way along the edge of platform 1 (which is behind fencing), "for our own safety".

Nothing came through during the time we were outside (eventually let in at 09:14 to board the train to Paddington), so I am intrigued as to what was going on there ? I assume it was related to the damaged train in some way? Its the first time I have been so close to the scene of an accident, so I wondered if that was standard procedure for the next station along (there were no police at Pangbourne or Tilehurst for example).

 I was on the 0631 from parkway - we got moving about 0815

And now Ealing Broadway...

Two incidents in one day.  Very sad.  I think the annual statistics will show a sharp increase in suicides/fatalities this year - especially on our network.  Can anything be done?

Three today as was one in early hours of this morning near Starcross.

And just come through that delays through Cheltenham due to suicidal person on a bridge.

I can now update and say that the driver of the Cholsey incident is ok. 

I was actually on the train behind the one involved (the 0520 off Malvern) and the minute I heard it was the train in front I knew it was our own flying scotsmans train involved.

I think I was lucky as I did a half day in work and managed tog et the 1345 out of paddington - which just about got out in the window before the ealing fatality!

Indeed: our sympathy to the driver of the train involved at Cholsey, and to all of the staff dealing with the incident.

Thoughts also for the family and friends of the deceased. :(

Yes, it was me.......who hit the person at Cholsey.

Delay was caused by the location of fatality......all lines were closed so persons near or about the track could not see the mess.
Lines were opened up after one hour, be it only the up and down relief lines.......customers being held up for an hour...which considering the circumstances ...was good.

Thanks for posting, flyingscotsman, and best wishes from all of us, I'm sure.

Chris.  :(

That must be THE most heart-rending post I've read on this or any other forum for a thankfully very long time. My heart goes out to you and your loved ones, flyingscotsman.

So sorry to hear that flyingscotsman, I hope it wasn't too traumatic  :(


Thank you for the additional information.

Anything to do with the clocks going back and the start of winter?  I know people suffering from depression can be affected by the weather.

Thoughts, as always, with the driver and recovery crew.

It doesn't help especially given the 'summer' we have just had. No I'm not talking about the amount of rain, more the complete lack of sunshine this year which going into the long winter months is not ideal for those who may suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

I was the driver of the train that hit the person at Cholsey.
To answer your questions.
1. All lines are blocked because at first until can be recognised that it is in deed a fatality, the
    area becomes a crime scene.
2. For the safety of people who may be on the tracks, BT Police, maybe Beat Police Officers who
   do not know the workings of the railway and also if there are Paramedics about.
3. There has to be a coroner at the scene to open the investigation as well.
4. People going past on trains seeing what might be a bloody mess might feel ill.
5. Children in the area, maybe going to school on the train, standing at the platform, this may
    have a lasting effect on them.

Why the police moved everybody away from Goring platform, if you were on or about the platform and the train came through covered in blood and guts, would you be happy to be standing there and be pelted by it?

Can I be very rude and ask if anyone knows the power cars involved in the fatalities?

43026, that was the leading power car i was driving

From the Oxford Mail (http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/10365879.Train_driver_tells_of_young_man_s_last_moments/):

Yesterday I walked on the footpath alongside the railway line from Cholsey Station to the A328 and passed the premises of J J Hutt, coal merchant, which have also seemed to me to be a throwback to the days when a number of stations had such businesses close by, presumably with supplies being delivered to them by rail.

I spotted what appeared to be a coal wagon in Hutt livery, but the setting sun was behind it and in my eyes. I've just Googled, and indeed it is a wagon.

Image here (https://www.cleanerscentral.co.uk/cleaner/980006/jh-hutt-and-sons-(hutt%27s-coal))

and here. (https://huttscoal.business.site/)

(Scroll down in both cases.)

Over the years I've passed the site many times on the train, but never spotted the wagon before = I guess that it must be obscured from the track.

Certainly coal merchant is a business that has been almost extinct for some time now. The last Thomson directory for Reading listed just one - J H Hutt, of course. Later yellow pages etc. have no such heading: nothing closer then firewood sales. And Hutts have been at Cholsey for 100 years, as they say. There was no coal yard marked on the maps of the time, so it was probably a question of a wagon of coal now then, parked on a siding while the load was shoveled into sacks to be delivered.

But if you think they have clung on at the station, you might be wrong. Google Earth's earlier pictures show the whole of the old goods yard overgrown in 2005, and being reoccupied by commercial activity since. But among the odd bits under the weeds, a small wagon could have been there all along.

By the by, I rather liked the random fact that, when the original John Henry Hutt died in 1933, his executors' solicitor was called Cecil Hatt.

Earlier this year I was looking at the coal yard at Wokingham (a much bigger place, of course). When the planning application for Jewsons site by the level crossing came in, I was unimpressed by their (consultants') Heritage report. Being locked down, theirs was hardly a desk study - relying on the developers' photos, and not even looking for online maps. The main building is hard to understand, having been much hacked about, but was an imposing detached house with a very industrial yard beside it.

They should have asked me! The house was owned by (I think built for) George Garratt, coal merchant. The "coal wharfs" were some way away, in a pretty industrial area by a smithy. His rather grand house was facing the level crossing, but he kept his carts and horses in the yard behind it, for safety. Later he also sold salt, seeds, farmers' supplies, and eventually it became a builders' merchant (but as Drake & Mount; by then Garratt had gone on to become a farmer). 

Note that in 1887, G Garratt advertised himself as coal, coke, and salt merchant at "Wokingham and at any other station to order". How did that work, exactly?

Yes, you're correct about old maps showing no evidence of a coal business. The 1877 six-inch one shows a turntable, goods shed and cattle pens, then the shed appears to have been moved further SE, and the pens still feature in a 1936 revision. Cholsey seems to be ill-served by old directories available on-line. I spent a few minutes looking at Oxfordshire ones until I recalled that the village itself was in Berkshire until 1974, and though there are several 19th-century Berkshire directories available I can't find anything more recent.

It's one of those instances when it would almost be worth glancing through hard copies in Reading's Local Studies Centre, but at the moment ...

I think the photos of the waggon posted were some time ago and it is a little more weather beaten at present and is situated - if I remember correctly as it has been quite some time - next to the Up Relief, perpendicular to the railway.

The business is run by a very pleasant fellow that can often be seen running around the district in his one tonner on deliveries. I was giving a geology talk to some Year 4 pupils at my sister's school, and I needed some coal to show the kids as part of that show and tell. On the off chance, I popped in and was pleased to discover he was on site - a very rare occasion. I explained my needs and he was delighted to take to the coal pile to select a couple of lumps. He then asked if I would like some anthracite. "Yes please", said I and a couple of shiny pieces were tossed in the polythene sack from his stock. He wished me all the best for my talk, refused my offering and bid me a cheery wave.

To see the delight on a child's face when they realised just how dirty bituminous coal is  ;D - in anticipation I had wet wipes and kitchen roll. The kids kept the anthracite!

A wonderful local business - please support them if you can.

There is still a short length of track embedded in the ground where back siding crossed over the goods shed access road. It can be seen on this 1910 map (https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18.59333333333333&lat=51.56881&lon=-1.15621&layers=168&b=4).

I wonder why there was a turntable, apparently in the goods yard, as shown on this 1877 map (https://maps.nls.uk/view/102339950)? To align wagons so goods could be more easily loaded/offloaded?

Interesting that the station was then known as Moulsford, which in those was closer to it than Cholsey. Then the latter village expanded and grew closer! In my commuting days I think the station was known as Cholsey & Moulsford, now it's just Cholsey.

Actually, the station moved less than a mile up the line, from Reading Road, Mouslford to what become Station Road, Cholsey. John Hutt was publican of the Waterloo Hotel on Reading Road,as well as being a carman or haulier. He took up coal dealing a bit later, moving nearer the new station. What lead to which is hard to say.

The old station site was where the small development now known as Waterloo Close is now- see below.

I think that the rectangular building at the southern end parallel to the track includes the old station building.


In my time there were both a Hutt and Hatts practising as local solicitors (one of the latter lives near me!). Both families are involved with businesses nearby at Woodcote - the Hutt coal and fuel merchants have a depot there, while W J Hatt Limited describe themselves as outside water engineers, providing everything from septic tank installation to ditching and constructing lakes and water features. Their vans used to have the slogan "Dam and Blast" on them! 

If the 6" map is to be believed, the station was centred 100 m from the bridge - which is in the trees well south of the surviving building. That is pretty much where the Railway Tavern was shown, but as parallel to the street. Twenty years later the station has gone, but pub - not marked as such - has mysteriously skewed round to match what's now there. I suspect is wasn't marked in its true orientation in the first place, since it's hard to see why a replacement building would line up with the non-existent station rather than the other houses along the street. As to why the station was taken down ... it may not have been much of a building, so not worth keeping.

Cholsey station platforms are currently accessible by stairs only.
There must be many wheelchair-using residents (like my wife) who would use the train if it were possible.
What would be the chances of a campaign to have lifts installed?
How would we go about it?
Goring & Streatley station users' thoughts welcome, their campaign having been successful.

Always potentially bit tricker at stations with subways.  Logically it would be behind Pangbourne as it doesn’t have as many users and also has more platforms.  Tilehurst is just getting them fitted now - easier job as the fairly new footbridge only requires minor alterations.

Good luck - I’m sure it will eventually happen.

At Goring & Streatley, it was the combination of an active local pressure group (MIGG - I think that stood for "Mobility in Goring Gap", but happy to be corrected by anyone who knows better) and the opportunity provided by the announcement that the footbridge at the station would be replaced and the prolonged delay in NR actually getting around to starting work.

I think Cholsey's problem is that you have an underpass, not a footbridge, so lifts as part of a footbridge renewal is not an opportunity that will arise.

At problematic locations, such as this, would it be possible to provide wheelchair access across the line, similar to the old fashioned "barrow crossing"
Safety could be much improved by use of gates, interlocked with the signalling system, that physically prevent access to the track unless no train is in section, and the relevant signal at danger. Clearing the signal would require visual confirmation that no person was between the gates. This could be done remotely by CCTV.

Simply no, the ORR would not agree to it.

I do not have that much knowledge of Cholsey station, as it has a subway shafts will need to be sunk down to the subway level on the island platform, possibly on the UR platform an external lift shaft can be installed. 

Planning permission will be required, has an application been made to the Local Authority / Parish Council?

The Local Authorities would be a good start to raise the access for all with NR and GWR

Cholsey's problem, in addition to it's design, is the proximity to Didcot, which does have step free access to all platforms.

The argument put forward for not originally installing lifts at Tilehurst was its proximity to Reading.

My personal view is that the railway should provide a free shuttle service (on request) for disabled passengers from stations like these. This could be delivered through a contract with a local Didcot taxi firm. The cost might well be significantly less than infrastructure changes and, if demand for the service is high, then the business case writes itself.

The irony about Cholsey is that Platform 4 on the Up Relief is near level access with the ramp to the station carpark but no doubt there will be some provision that prevents this easy fix. If it was, a wheelchair bound person or person with mobility issues could enter the London bound platform; and even if they wanted to travel to Didcot and beyond they could travel via Goring and Streatley and use the lifts there to access the correct platform for their onward journey.

You wouldn't need planning permission to fit lifts within a station. You might need Listed Building consent however.

For stations that aren't accessible, there already *is* a free taxi service to the nearest accessible service. That is how Access for All on the rails works everywhere

That's interesting. Do you have any links to any websites that describes this?

The "Access for all" programme (https://www.networkrail.co.uk/communities/passengers/station-improvements/access-for-all-improving-accessibility-at-railway-stations-nationwide/) is about upgrading station facilities; as that's infrastructure it all goes through Network Rail (though the money comes from the government).

The label for operational support is "Passenger Assist", which is a national scheme but implemented and publicised by TOCs individually. GWR describe theirs on their web site (https://www.gwr.com/travel-information/passenger-assist), and in the booklet "Making rail Accessible" (https://www.gwr.com/-/media/gwr-sc-website/files/passenger-assist/2023/ATP-Customer-Leaflet-DL-2023.pdf). The relevant bit of text says:

They are rather vague about what that might involve, no doubt because needs vary so much case by case and they prefer not to create a more specific "right".

A wheelchair accessible taxi where necessary is provided - but book in advance as they often have to come from some way away.
Yes, I knew it was Passenger Assist - I use them every week. The app is *very* good.

Thanks. Very helpful. I wonder how many disabled non-rail users are aware of this?

I wonder how many disabled non-rail users are aware of this?

Well lets start putting it on our favourite local train station/s web site/facebook.

I have suggested to a couple of operators Accessible Passenger Groups that an "Introduction to Disabled Travel on our Trains" document be formulated and made available across the various outlets already available in various formats.

Everyone who is disabled is newly disabled at some stage.....

And those who have been disabled for some time may eventually wish to travel independently.

Rail should be a great opportunity for those who are not able to use other forms of transport.

Just learned that Cholsey Parish Council is setting up a working party to investigate potential improvements to accessibility at the station. It's a start...