Great Western Coffee Shop

An interesting comparison of the scenes at four of our local stations around Bristol: any ideas as to why there are such differences in the methods of indicating where public access on these platforms ends?

And just to add to my puzzlement: why are there yellow lines painted on both platforms at Nailsea, but not at Parson Street or Bedminster??

Nailsea & Backwell:
(http://www.raildocuments.org.uk/apr08photos/130408nailsea28.jpg)

Stapleton Road:
(http://www.raildocuments.org.uk/apr08photos/110408staproad17.jpg)

Parson Street:
(http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/images/1/10/Parson_Street9.jpg)

Bedminster:
(http://bristol-rail.co.uk/wiki/images/d/d8/Bedminster18.jpg)

(My thanks to Lee Fletcher for pictures of Nailsea & Backwell and Stapleton Road, and to Bristol Railway Archive for pictures of Parson Street and Bedminster).

Could it be connected to the fact that Bedminister and Parson St are islands platforms? Or maybe that's just the way fences were build at the time of construction - I think the installation of high security fencing at platform ends is a recent development. I hadn't seen any anywhere until it went up at Nailsea.

As for the yellow line, I would think it's due to a higher line speed, 100mph at Nailsea while only 90 through Parson St and Bedminister.

TLM

Thanks for those suggestions, TheLastMinute!

However, I'm not convinced that the line speed alone determines whether there is a yellow line on the platform or not:

Chris,

I've had a bit of a dig around on the Railway Group Standards (http://www.rgsonline.co.uk) website and found the document that deals with standards for platforms including yellow lines! According to Part 9 of Group Standard GI/RT7016 (http://www.rgsonline.co.uk/docushare/dsweb/Get/Rail-43611/GIRT7016_2.PDF) the following rules apply to protect people from passing trains:

Passing speed	Actions
Passenger trains greater than 125mph	People excluded from platform areas exposed to the aerodynamic effects of trains.
Passenger trains greater than 100mph but not exceeding 125mph	Yellow line on platform 1500mm from the platform edge and warning signs plus risk assessment.
Fright trains greater than 60mph	Risk assessment of aerodynamic effect and unspecified actions to reduce risk to lightweight objects and vulnerable passengers.

For course, if a platform doesn't fit into any of the categories above there's nothing that prevents a station operator painting a yellow line if they wish, as I would guess has happened at Oxford.

TLM

The old "Down" Platform 1 at Chippenham, nearest to the booking office, has a smart yellow line painted along its entire length.

There hasn't been a track running next to it for over 25 years.

Not too many high speed passsing trains on the other platforms either.

Chippenham is also notable for having those rather quaint signs warning of passing high speed trains with an outline of a steam locomotive (and a rather slow looking one at that). I've not seen those anywhere else.

No, but there is freight .... and I have seen a 153 go through at - well - speeds that I didn't think were possible from a 153 when it was "skipping stops" trying to catch up on its Westbury to Cheltenham schedule!

Not Chippenham ... but here's another interesting one which I saw the other week and felt to be curious

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/yellowlines.jpg)

Which presumably is why there's a yellow line along Platform 2 at Exeter St Davids - a bay platform! ::)

Just a slightly connected question: 

Why do platforms have sloping ramps down to track level at their ends? 

I assume that this is to make access easier for track staff, but it does seem to make trespass easier as well and I am therefore surprised that it can be justified where there is another means of access to the track for legitimate purposes. 

Is it just a railway tradition?  I note that new platforms (ie Newport and Swindon) also have these ramps.  Surely if they were removed you could extend the useable part of the platform without much cost and prehaps even reduce the requirement for SDO? 

The only other purpose I can think of is to enable passengers who exit an unplatformed door to get to the safety of the platform easily.  But in this day and age exiting an unplatformed door is not something that we encourage or allow (although I wouldn't be surprised if it was common practice 80 years ago).

At the far southern end of Chippenham station, way beyond the canopy roof, the ramps provide the only available means for disabled and incapacitated people to reach the platforms from which trains actually run.

Quite frankly I find this an extraordinary state of affairs in this so-called "enlightened" age. There's been a traverser bridge at Brockenhurst  (http://www.terrascope.co.uk/images/brockenhurstdevice.jpg)to enable people (and luggage) to reach the opposite platforms for over 100 years, so it's not exactly beyond the wit of mankind to provide a solution.

*shakes fist angrily and yet pointlessly towards the skies*

Could it be related to how busy a station is? Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road have far more users than Bedminster and Parson Street. (I think a lot of people probably think we still get just the one train a day in each direction..... I haven't seen any publicity for the increased services in recent years.)

90mph through Bedminster  :o

The number of passengers must be a factor as well as the speed of the trains.  The yellow lines at Oxford are not overkill.  The platform gets very busy and it is easy for passengers to get too close to the edge so short of widening the platform the yellow lines make sense. 

Sometimes, Liam, looking at all the graffiti, vandalism and litter there, I'd be inclined to say that's possibly the best way to go through Bedminster!  ;) :D ;D

Thanks for your suggestion, bemmy - and again, I'm sorry, but I'm not convinced!  :P

Stapleton Road: no yellow lines - and I suspect the line speed there may be less than 90mph?

(http://www.raildocuments.org.uk/apr08photos/110408staproad17.jpg)

I was referring to the whassanames to stop people walking off the end of the platform, rather than the yellow lines. But I'm not convinced either, maybe they just haven't got round to doing ours yet.

I don't think any train passes through Bedminster or Parson St at anywhere near 90mph, so I can see why we don't need the yellow lines.

Oi! I heard that! :D

Sorry, bemmy, I misunderstood your point.  :-[

These new heavily padlocked 'security gates' and galvanised spiked metal railings are a recent addition to selected stations, certainly - but how it is decided which stations should have them is not clear.  However, on a rather sombre note, there has been at least one fatality at Bedminster, involving someone being on the tracks - but none at Nailsea & Backwell, so far as I'm aware?  See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/3703594.stm  :(


Maybe not 90mph, but some of the HST services from BTM have reached a fair speed by the time they pass through Parson Street, if not through Bedminster?


I did say, 'sometimes' ...  ;D

Perhaps the Chippenham situation demonstrates the lack of consistency with the rules I was discussing a few weeks ago in a different thread. Contrast Oxford's yellow lines with Banbury just down the line;

Granted, Oxford does have a busier platform, but you have thick yellow lines clearly marked on both straight platforms with a 25mph linespeed. At Banbury the up platform has a linespeed of 75mph with a quite tight curve restricting the visual warning you get of an approaching train. A thin yellow line was painted many years ago but has faded to be totally invisible in any of the well-used areas of the platform. Standing there late last night a liner roared through at 75mph and the draught, noise and speed of the train created quite an nervy feeling inside me (and I'm quite used to the movement of trains!) as I stood well back from the edge of the platform. If I was a 'risk assessor' I'd have dashed to the nearest Homebase for a big pot of yellow paint sharpish!

IIRC Chippenham should have lifts by 2012 or something. Epic levels of investment I think you'll agree  :D

By the way, something I've noticed recently at Nailsea & Backwell is that the 'industrial strength' padlocks on all those gates have disappeared - perhaps a belated acknowledgement that having such 'over-the-top' security (next to a rubber mat) is a bit of a waste of such hardware?

However - the padlocks on similar gates at (just for example) Lawrence Hill remain in place (my personal observation, 8 / 9 October)?  ???