Great Western Coffee Shop

Hi,

It was a sad journey home for me last night as I was on the 23.20 semi-fast train to Oxford from Paddington that hit a person at Hayes & Harlington.

First off - if anyone here knows of the driver please pass on my sympathies to him - I thought he did remarkably well to compose himself after the incident and to inform us all that there "Had been an incident and we'll be stopped for some time."  It must be awful as it was unnerving enough sitting in the carriage with noise and the sensation of the wheels running over ballast etc

The railway staff and emergency services involved all appeared to do a professional job whilst we waited.  Thanks too to the member of rail staff who walked through the train to update us all on how long we'd be waiting for for the police to hand back the train and then the train to be checked by an engineer.

Unfortunately, Hayes & Harlington seems to be getting a number of these incidents now - it's a tragic phenomenon that's been reported before about how when a place gets a few such incidents it tends to attract more like-minded individuals to the same place.  It's hard to know what to do to prevent such incidents from happening.

Boppy.

My symapathy to everyone involved especially including the driver and the recovery team.

Hayes and Harlington does seem to have become a hotspot.  Waverley bridge in Edinburgh (which is high above the station of the same name) has signs and a free-phone errected by the Samaritans to discourage "jumpers".  Not sure if that is a good idea or not.  There is a danger that errecting one at H&H would only add to the station's reputation and attract more sucidal people. 

Stupid question perhaps, and certainly an uneducated one, but isn't there an option available at H&H for installing a wire mesh like a net under the bridge? (obviously a net would be no use as it would give, meaning the drivers would most likely have unexpected company joining them via the windscreen)

Suppose it would all depend on the clearance between that and the overhead cables. The idea is good, but afaik the fatalities we have had at Hayes hasn't involved them jumping from the bridge.

A solution is platform doors (no good as train stock varies) or a pit under the track.

From the FGW site:




Sadly, the FGW site has now been updated to confirm, this was a fatality.  :(

rip

I give my deepest sympathy to the driver.

Seconded

I notice you quote the 20:15 Swansea train, but train involved was actually the 19:51 Paddington - Didcot PW

Yes, it was, Ollie.  :(

However, my intention in quoting subsequent train services that were then being affected, was to explain the reason for delays to those services which were still short of their final destinations when I posted at 21:36.

In fact, my original post had to be edited, as updates were being made on the FGW 'live updates' page even as I was compiling it.

22:27 Heathrow Terminal 5 to Paddington (Heathrow Express) hit a person at Hayes and Harlington.

Not sure as yet whether fatality or not, but as always thoughts to driver and family of the person involved.

Can confirm it was a fatality.

1P51 15:29 service involved (thanks to Ollie).

Thoughts as always with those involved.

Has caused major disruption into and out of Paddington tonight with services either severely delayed or cancelled (I'm already on my third train just trying to go one stop and not even left Paddington yet!)

The 15:29 from where to where?

http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-london-news/local-uxbridge-news/2011/07/19/man-killed-by-train-at-hayes-rail-station-113046-29083644/

Judging by this article seems it was the incident that happened around 15:29 - not the time of the train - think someone should be able to work out which service it was from the number Ollie gave me - 1P51.

1P51:

1431 Oxford - London Paddington 1529

Haha... turns out Ollie did say it was the 1529 arrival - Sorry Ollie!!  :P

I only caught the tail end of this disruption but wanted to praise the information desk man at Paddington..

When I got there at approx 18.50 the 18.36 was showing as being at platform 14 so there was a lot of people running that way.. When we all got there there wasn't a train in sight.. Coming back to the concourse I passed the train on platform 12 (which was the 18.57 stopper apparently) there really wasn't any room to get on there.. So I headed back to the concourse.. Only to find the 18.51 departure (first stop Slough) was going from platform 14...

Now..much as I love running up and down platform 12 usually, I have a bad cold  currently and also I could see this could go on all night if I let it,  so I asked the information desk man if he knew if the train would definitely still be at platform 14 if I set off again.

And he was very kind and went off to ask someone on his radio.. He then came back and said it would be going in approx 5 minutes..So.. Although I had to run for a second time.. It meant I knew there would be a train at the end of it...And there was... ;D  ;D

A person has been hit by a train between Hayes & Harlington and West Drayton.
Because of this, the following alterations will apply until approximately 22:00:
Trains between London Paddington and Reading are being delayed by up to 90 minutes
Services to and from Heathrow Airport are currently suspended
Trains are currently unable to call at Hayes & Harlington

2 Lines reopened around 18:35

My brothers partner is caught up in it returning home from paddington, shes put on her facebook that the train is finally moving with declassified first class.

I was on the 16:42 from Padd it was capped at about 17:00 Hayes & Harlington.  Met Police were taking statements from a couple of people on the platform, Paramedics were just arriving; the incident could only have happened a few minutes before.   While waiting for an empty 140 bus to Heathrow BTP arrived (at about 17:25).

My journey home 140 bus to Heathrow and then First bus 75 to Maidenhead (painfully slow) via Langley, Slough with a 15 min stopover for a driver PNB.  Apart from the time hours from Hayes it cost me ^5.50 for the First Bus bit.

I was on the 17:06 Paddington - Bristol TM via Bradford on Avon which never departed, the TM imformed us of the fatality soon after the scheduled departure time. I couidn't be bothered with the struggle via Waterloo so I waited it out at Paddington. Trains started running again at about 18:30, before that only Greenford trains had been running, even Heathrow Express was also cancelled (at one time there were 3 HEX trains in Paddington, the third was unusually in Platform 4).

I was hoping to get to Twyford on the 18:47 to Cheltenham which is first stop there but it was cancelled. There were stoppers at 18:25, 18:45 and 19:11 but they were all too full to board. Meanwhile long-distance HSTs were also delayed departing due to people trying to crush onto them and I saw BT Police being summoned to the 18:45 to Swansea.

My next hope was the 19:06 semi-fast to Henley but it too was initially cancelled so I tried to board the very delayed 18:57 stopper on Platform 13 but that was also crush-loaded. Just then the Turbo on 14 was announced as the reinstated 19:06, first stop Maidenhead, so I was able to board that. It left at about 19:30, took the relief to Acton, main to Southall West (after a very stop-start journey from West Ealing) and then the relief to Twyford where it was terminated. It arrived there at about 20:20, nearly 3 hours after I should have arrived on the 17:06 (but I probably could have arrived at least 45 minutes earlier if I'd gone via Waterloo and Reading).

I got to Paddington at 17.30 for the 17.51 (having checked Journey check before I left but never mind it couldn't be helped)..

It all seemed quite good natured to be honest.. I decided against Waterloo as no one was sure if when I got to Reading there would be trains to bring me back to Maidenhead or not..

I had a nice stand for an hour or so, then decided to try the bar for half hour.. They were certainly benefitting form the delays as it was packed in there..

I tried for the 19.18 departure first stop Maidenhead but couldn't get on it..Eventually the 19.22 was announced at 19.45 which was first stop Slough so I (and lots of other people got on that).. And then we were left to sit there for 35 minutes without any announcements as to why, which I think was the only negative thing that happened tonight, but there is no excuse for it.. It was a case of not knowing what to do as to get to hear the announcements at the station by getting off I'd have lost my place on the train, yet if I knew how long the delay would be at the start I could have made an informed decision..

I had an nice chat with fellow passengers once we did get going and nearly made lots of new friends when I told them I had a bottle of wine in my bag!

We got back to Slough at about 8.45 only to find it was a 25 minute wait for the next stopping train (!).. At that point people joined up in groups for taxis back to Maidenhead.. So the Slough taxi drivers also did well from it.. The Maidenhead ones were looking a bit bored when we got back mind...

Presumably johoare is referring to the 1922 Hereford service.

I boarded this at Reading, from where it departed about 90 minutes late.  The Train Manager apologised for the delay, explaining that because of the fatality, the original crew members were not at Paddington and replacements had to be found.  The train was further delayed at Didcot East and outside Oxford station, from where it departed 99 minutes late.

Because of this, planned engineering work at Moreton-in-Marsh had to be delayed.  By this time, trains were supposed to be terminating at/starting from Charlbury, with bus replacements to/from Worcester.

The following 2020 from Paddington to Charlbury was cancelled, although, somehow, FGW managed to provide a 2207 HST from Charlbury, which should have been the 2020's return working.

Very Sorry to all caught up in this, does anyone know what train set it was?

I was caught up in this waiting for the 1736 Bradford on avon service from Reading (to get me to Thatcham). In this respect I was one of the lucky ones because I had the fall back of a local service.

I have to say I think FGW actually did a good job  for passengers at Reading n turning some of the some of the London bound services around there. There was some confusion because a lot of services didnt leave from their normal platforms (some GWML services where leaving from P8 which ARAIK doesn;t normally happen). Also I think some passengers were confused by the window stickers which no longer matched the destinations.

BUT I still reckon that FGW (and whoever was involved behind the scenes in terms of scheduling) did a stirling job. It could not have been easy!

In fact I may just compose an email to FGW feedback!

Unfortunately that wasn't the case at Paddington last night. In my experience FGW are normally quite good at resuming services after major disruption but yesterday too many trains were going from 'On Time' to 'Delayed' then 'Cancelled'. It seemed to me that there was no efficient planning to decide in good time whether or not a service could actually run.

When I did post I that was aware that passagers at PAD would have suffered worst of all and certainly if I had been at PAD I would have probably waited rather than doing the Waterloo marathon. I think IMHO I would rather be at a station than stuck on a train for 1 or 2 hours going no where. The latter did happen to me last year when a train broke down at Reading west.

Yes exactly, I'd rather sit it out at Paddington where there is food, drink and toilets as well as leg-stretching possibilities. I've heard a rumour that the train involved in last night's incident, the 16:49 PAD-OXF, was stationary for about 3 hours before it could be moved (due to brake pipe damage), that must have been hellish for everyone on board.

Yes, that was the train involved.

Thanks to previous experience of such events, I headed off to Marylebone as soon as I saw what was happening at Paddington.   Talking to fellow passengers this morning, that decision was quite a good one.

Something that FGW  really needs to sort out is its sharing of information.  I went past Marylebone on the Bakerloo and if there'd be an announcement on the tube I could have got off at Marylebone.  Instead I, like many others, continued to Paddington, learned of the problems and then took the tube back to Marylebone.  That's just adding a further load on the tube that could be avoided.  Oh, and my daily email alert at 17:00 from FGW said there weren't any delays!

17:07 - I was sat on the 17:06 when they made the announcement we were held due to person under train, nothing was leaving
17:25 - I got off and decided to go back to work and do a couple of hours
18:30 - I got a text saying 2 of 4 lines were reopened, decided to sit it out as Paddington would be crowded
19:35 - I then left work at 19:35, missed the delayed 19:35 instead got the 20:00 , arrived Reading at 20:45, a lady on the platform was being seen to by staff, looks like she had passed out on a train
20:50 - boarded the 20:41 (which was held to let the 2 Plymouth fast trains through) which left Reading at 21:05, home at 21:20

I didn't hang around Paddington when it was announced but I heard some people having a go at FGW staff which I think is uncalled for it was not their fault

Totally agree.




Edited to fix quote. bignosemac.

Got to Ealing Broadway intending to catch the 17:33 (there was nothing on the website to indicate a problem before I left - why????) but they weren't allowing anyone on the platform & told us to go to Waterloo. From previous experience of doing that I calculated that it would be evens at best as to which way would be quicker so I got the tube to Paddington & waited it out there.

I ended up as one of the sardines on the (almost 1-hour-late) 18:03 to Penzance - which was definitely "the first [fast] train out" as the train manager proudly informed us. As expected, things slowed down at Southall as we waited to cross onto the relief lines, and then as we passed the scene.

But then we were abandoned to our fate on the relief line all the way to Reading, ending up stuck behind a stopper from (presumably?) Slough, while as we neared Reading, other trains which had left Paddington after us merrily sped past us on the main line. To add insult to injury, we then had to queue for a platform at Reading behind one of them.

Surely it's not unreasonable to expect that the trains would have arrived at Reading in the same order as when they left Paddington? (Which would have been the same order as they were originally timetabled to leave anyway). If you are prepared to endure such hellish conditions just to be on the first train out because you need to get home by a particular time, surely you should not have to put up with being overtaken by supposedly "later" trains making you even later than you originally were. We eventually arrived at Reading at 20:15, a journey time of over an hour for what should have been a 25-minute journey. I had expected that we would be be switched back to the main line as soon as we were past the scene, and then to have had a completely free run at full line speed to Reading. Even the train manager was perplexed and annoyed and said he was trying to find out what was going on. Can someone please explain to me (and my fellow-sufferers) why did this not happen?

I got to Paddington and saw some fellow Maidenhead commuters coming the other way. When I got down the ramp onto the lawn, it was absolutely rammed with people, pretty much confused. Lots of tourist wandering around. If this happens during the Games goodness knows what will happen.

Did consider going via Waterloo but thought it would also be rammed and a long stopper to Windsor. The choice about going via Marylebone someone has said is a good one, I might make that in future. Are Chiltern pretty good at ticket swapping as far a High Wycombe, or do you need a new ticket etc?
Instead I went to the Pride of Paddington and settled down with a pint or two of Pride, and a copy of BRM.....
Whilst mulling around I did see a turbo unit and it was absolutely rammed with passengers, but with no driver. In the cab the other end there must have been half a dozen fgw employees, all trying to get home as well. Did make me lol!

A total pity they didn't mention anything at Paddington after they had crammed us all on to the train and left us for 35 minutes with no information in my opinion then.. I guess they knew the crew members weren't at Paddington and weren't likely to be for some time at that point.. As I and many people have said before Information is very important yet FGW seem to fail on it a lot

That's the risk of being on the first train out, the line(s) directly affected by the incident may remain closed and those not affected are opened up for traffic while the final stages of hand back is done, so your train was sent out on the Main and crossed over to the Relief Lines because of the Main remained closed the reopening of the affected lines is not an exact science; Control would have made the decision to leave your train on the Relief Line to save slowing trains that were being let through on the Main also they do not run the risk of a points failure.

Personally I try to avoid "the first train out" they are always rammed

Says it all about the current state of the  railway daren't use the crossovers for fear of points failure.

Surely no set of points is more likely to fail than another? Makes sense to avoid any further disruption - rather than cross the service over and then run the risk of a points failure.

Was the information about lines being opened accurate?  National Rail Twitter said that two lines were reopened at 6:28.  I was sat at Langley station from about 6:45 and absolutely no trains came through heading away from London between then and about 7:20 when a stopper arrived (followed by a couple of HSTs I think), whilst at least three or four trains headed through in the other direction.  Did it take that long to get anything moving?

Mathmo: Your problem was that once past Dolphin Jn (between Langley and Slough) there is no right hand cross over until Southall West to get you on the Up Main, which is beyond Hayes where the incident was. Hence no trains on the Up Relief. At least you were stuck at a station.

If you can't rely on the points what's the point (agg!) having them?

Hey - Im a long time lurker here but never had anything worth saying, but I thought I should sign up since I happened to be on the 16:49 on Tuesday so may be able to add some insight.

Was dozing in carriage B (about 3/4 full, lots of empty reserved seats..) and making good time until there was a big bang going thru Hayes station (5pm), lots of ballast thrown up as we went under the bridge there, & the train comes to a gentle stop by the side of the Heathrow spur - pretty clear we had hit something.

And there we sat for just under three hours. Crew were very good at keeping us informed, using both the tannoy at the regulation 15min intervals + walking thru the train & repeating the messages / talking to people every so often. Wasnt too busy at the front of the train thankfully so there was space to get up & wander around + they opened the buffet for water / Tea (definitely no Alcohol!) - Ive had worse delays, may have been worse up the back 'cos people do tend to cram in back there.

From what I could see, which wasn't all that much being alongside the Heathrow spur bridge, it took about an hour for the police to do their inspection & for the relief line to open, mainline being blocked by us - about another hour for two fitters to be delivered from Reading on HSTs, at which time trains started going up to London on the mainline past us slowly. Fitters did their thing shutting off the leaking air lines & fuel line (we were told there was a big hole in the front of the train which had done quite a lot of damage) & releasing the brakes manually. Just before 8pm we chugged off slowly to Slough where we all got to pile on to a turbo to Reading & then onwards.

I wandered up to the front of the platform @ Slough & had a quick peek at the front of the train - there was indeed a big hole where the grill normally is on the top of the power car nose; must have been head on & thus really unpleasant for the driver. Never the less he had the wits to let the train coast until it was past the junction for the Heathrow spur so that the HEX could get going again ASAP - good man !

Quite impressed with the way we were treated whilst we were stuck, so will be dropping a nice email to FGW today since I expect that they could do with a bit of positive input. Cant really say the same about the hour it took to get from Slough to Didcot, but at least I got to see how the Reading works are coming along (thats a big job!) & finally got home just before 10pm, a full six hours after I left my office for the day.

Well I was on the first of those HST's then! What I don't get is where that stopper came from to get in front of us if the lines were supposed to be closed?

"Control would have made the decision to leave your train on the Relief Line to save slowing trains that were being let through on the Main"

But all the trains on the main SHOULD have been slowed to let us get back on to the main line without any of them being able to overtake us, that is the whole point! If anything it is some of the later departures that should have been left on the relief, especially if they were less likely to catch up to a stopper in the process.

Thanks for those comments, OxfordNick - The importance of the on-board staff keeping everybody up-to-date cannot be underestimated when a train is involved in a serious incident like this.  I know the TM concerned, so will pass on your comments to him.

Though, to be fair, as soon as the driver hit somebody there would be an emergency brake application and the train would stop wherever it stops, so it would have been more luck than skill that the train was clear of the HEx lines.  Drivers are under instruction to avoid stopping in tunnels or on viaducts if possible, but that's it.


What time did you check the website?  The incident itself happened at just gone 5pm, so a couple of minutes for that to filter through to control a few more minutes to realise the implications of it and form a rough service recovery plan, and a few more minutes to type that into the systems that update the website and I'd have thought that 5:15ish would have been the earliest you could have expected anything online about the situation.


It would probably have started at Slough.  Local services were being turned back at Slough - the last place you can do that with proper signalling until Hayes itself.

Unfortunately, that's not the way it works - I believe that it is deemed better to let an already very delayed train accumulate more delay, rather than contribute to the delay of other services. Lesser of two evils.

Dviner you have hit on the precise problem with the way lateness is recorded by train and not by minutes. In BR days we recorded by minutes and divided by number of trains Thus it was better to have two trains 5 minutes late than one 15 minutes down.

Thus there was incentive to minimise delays to all trains. In which case Jane s is right her train should have been switched to the Main at Dolphin or Slough West.

A classic case of statistics distoring the outcome for the worse.

In BR days there probably was Delay Attribution*, but I doubt that it had all the financial fun and games associated with it that there is today.

With the possibility of trains from different Operating Companies being involved in an incident, the delay can't be averaged out, so it has to be dealt with on a train-by-train basis.

*Something that is a bit of a dirty word nowadays, but, putting the whole money-go-round part of it aside, it does need to exist, as it should have an important role in the whole root-cause analysis and corrective action process.

Yep it's the "bean counters who rule the roost not the railwaymen". Plus the silly idea that TOCs should compete.

I remember helping with a delay analysis at Essex House measuirng delays in the up peak at Victoria. In those days it was manual we collected the guards reports which gave detailed running times. So it was possible to look at which trains that were normally delayed and where it first occured. Thus it led to tweaks in the timetable (not padding) to rectify the situation.

There was one annoying thing which used to happen regularly, maybe every couple of weeks or so, when I commuted in BR days on the loco-hauled trains from Twyford. Even after an on-time departure from Maidenhead (the last stop before Paddington) where it was put onto the Up Main, at Slough West the train would be switched back to the Up Relief and would trundle to Dolphin Junction where it would stand for a couple of minutes until an HST went past (presumably a late-running one?) before returning to the Up Main. This could cause a delay of about 8-10 minutes to my train. Therefore it would appear that priority was being given to a late-running HST over an on-time local semi-fast, so yes it looks like it was better to have two trains late than one train (the HST) being delayed further.

It's tough on the people on the delayed (first) train ... but isn't there a sense in leaving it to find its own way / path through an otherwise normal set of other trains, rather than reducing its lateness (but still running it out of path) and knocking on to running following trains out of path too?

Single train delayed ... knock on is only to the rest of that diagram.  Multiple trains delayed ... knock on is to lots of diagrams and could bring general chaos.

I'm noticing today that the Paddington -> Newquay train is 30 late and is terminating at Par, starting back from there too.  Presumably that's done to avoid a knock-on delay to the next train on the branch, and also other knock-ons when the service gets back into Devon and beyond.  But pity the people who turn up at Newquay for the 15:00 to Paddington.  How late will they be when they get back into London?

Just looked up to answer my own question ... 3 hours late by London - not 20:39 but 23:41.  By which time many will have missed their last train to the 'burbs.

Road transport will be resourced which will reduce the delay for those from Newquay. Delay was because the train hit a tree.

In my opinion it has caused more delays terminating it at Par, especially with the higher speed limit on the Newquay line now, it would easily make its return service and would not delay anything as it does not pass anything at Goonbarrow in both directions, last summer when I travelled on that service it arrived 7 minutes early without the increased speed - Intend to travel on this service tomorrow - see how early it arrives, if it makes the whole journey that is!  ::)

Terminating the service at Par involved shunting it around or something, and that has delayed the following Paddington to Penzance service further. Can only see this being for one reason and that being that the Newquay - Penzance unit uses crew from the Newquay HST service, so would be blocking the platform to allow the HST to continue to Newquay.

Yes .. sorry Ollie .. I didn't see a "road transport" note like I sometimes do on the short-run report, so I made an incorrect assumption. Probably 21:21 into London for Newquay passengers, then.

I'm not sure what you've said is strictly true eightf: BR (and the railway companies before that) had a longstanding practice of giving rush-hour commuter trains priority over late-running express services, so this sort of operating goes back well over 60 years. I'm not saying that the response to the incident last week was perfect, and of course the lines these days between purely express and commuter traffic are blurred somewhat, but it's misleading to say that allowing a heavily delayed train to get later rather than mess up a bunch of right-time services is a product of privatization.

There's also a lot more trains now than there used to be making more stops to cope with the number of people that want to travel.  To compare the 1965 timetable with today the number of departures from Paddington between 5-6pm was 20 and it's now 26 - that makes it much more difficult to regulate trains sensibly, especially given that quite a few of those missed out calls at Reading.

Off-peak and the difference was even larger - for example now Paddington to Ealing Broadway has eight trains each off-peak hour.  Back in 1965 it was three.  Hayes used to have two, but now enjoys six.

A pertinant point regarding crossing trains from relief lines and main lines and vice versa is the track lay out, where as other lines have two up lines and then two down lines the gwml has up and down main and up and down relief. This means that potentially to cross a train from the relief to the main you have to slow down/stop a up service as well as stopping the one on the down main meaning that potentially you now have three delayed trains rather than just one.

Another incident at Hayes just at the start of this morning's rush hour.

From the  Uxbridge Gazette.  (http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-london-news/local-uxbridge-news/2012/07/20/breaking-news-man-killed-at-hayes-and-harlington-station-113046-31435517/)

I was on the 07:08 Maidenhead - Paddington HST this morning that was affected by the fatality near Hayes.  First we knew something was amiss when we slowed down quite briskly and came to a stop at West Drayton.   

Due credit to the Train Manager who made annoucements providing updates that commenced with "the driver's gone to find out what the matter is", "fatality on the line, expected to be delays of unknown duration", "you may want to consider taking the bus to Uxrbidge and taking the tube from there" plus other useful announcements - although the one about transferring onto a train on another platform (which looked like it left before anyone managed to cross the platforms!) may have been better timed.

As soon as we stopped I checked the FGW site and that said there'd be an incident (soon updated to confirm it was a fatality).  Twitter (#fgw) was useful too.

It's during events such as this that information and progress updates are invaluable, so well done to the team who ensured this happened - both the on-train team and those who update the website & twitter feeds.

I was on the 07:03 from Maidenhead this morning it arrived at Padd 07:23, 4 mins ahead of time, however there were not announcements (that I heard)about delays although head down and aim for the Tube.

Sympathies to all involved.

I was somewhat puzzled as to why the (on time) 0800 Temple Meads to Paddington ran non stop between Bath and Reading (presumably diverted via the B&H) because of the fatality (which was east of Reading). The only possible reason I could think of was that control was already holding services at Swindon and Didcot so preferred to send it the long way round to keep it moving.     

Since the incident is mentioned here I thought I'd add my experience rather than starting a new thread about it (since no one has set one up totally dedicated to it).

I got to Maidenhead about 7.45am as usual today.. It didn't take long to find out what had happened.. There was an HST stopped on the down mainline platform with doors open (which they don't usually do if it's not a scheduled stop). So I headed over there..

On that particular train the information was so good. The driver was on the platform when I got there but was constantly trying to get information.. Everyone else seemed good natured.. the train manager was giving information updates very often..  All good..

I also think we were lucky as we left about 8.30 when the relief line opened, and because we were at Maidenhead we could cross over there to that line.. we subsequently passed quite a few trains waiting on the mainline as that line was still closed..

I think we were the second train to get into Paddington once it all started up again and my delay was just over half an hour which I was impressed with... :-)

IMHO in situations like this being kept informed can help difuse situations greatly (but not always). I do remember being stuck on an HST at Reading West (due to train failure) and the TM kept on telling us they were doing their best to find out what was happening. Although this resulted in quite a few "no news" PA announcements at least we felt like we were not being ignored.

Person hit by a train again - must've happened around 06:00.

Also a bad day for services around London Liverpool Street with a person hit by a train in Brentwood area.

Second one in the area in a few days - someone died near Iver early on Sunday morning.

Lost count of how many strikes there have been at H&H - there was one quite recently looking further down this forum...

05:48 Paddington to Great Malvern, a Class 180, was the unfortunate train.  There was damage to the train as well as to the track as a result, which meant that all four lines took longer to open than they otherwise would have, though the relief lines opened fairly quickly so at least trains were getting through - albeit heavily delayed.

Not a good morning on the kennet line either - late running engineering works meant lots of delays and cancellations to trains between Newbury and Reading and there also seemed to be problems at Calthrop level cross in thatcham.

Thoughts to everyone involved.

Isn't it time we had a full-time security presence at the known suicide hotspots such as Southall and Hayes and Harlington? OK it would cost ^250-300k a year, but surely if it just stops one of these incidents a year it would be worth it?

What can 'security' do though?

I know of few people in the security industry who would have the necessary skills to deal with a suicidal person. You need people with counselling and negotiating skills and I don't think deploying them at a 'hotspot' would be a good use of resources. It'll just move the problem elsewhere.

I agree totally BNM. My suspicion is that more security will nive the problem onto someone else's shoulders.its a very sad business when this happens and I really feel for the people affected by this - not least the people who have to desk with the after effects (I tried to be delicate about wording this but it is difficult)

To reduce the risk at Hayes and Southall stations some structural work is required on platform 2 at both stations, fence off the first 20 to 30 metres of the platform from the platform stairs, the platforms are very narrow and hence very busy at this point; this would mean extending the length of platform 2 towards London especially at Hayes as this is the emergency evac station for HEX trains.

Even this would not eliminate the risk, it more than likely manifest it self elsewhere.

On the Southern Region over the last couple of years several stations have gained fences on fast line platforms, usually preventing access to the platform but with gates that are able to be opened to allow access to the platform in the rare occasion a train stops there.

Both Hayes and Southall island platforms are too narrow to do that.

The last few fatatities at Hayes including this one have occured on platform one which incidentally when the platform was extended gained a new exit leading from the platform to the adjacent car park, so a fence on platform two would have had no effect

Yet another person hit by a train at H&H tonight - nothing able to leave PAD at the moment according to Network Rail.

From the Uxbridge Gazette (http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-london-news/local-uxbridge-news/2012/10/01/two-fatalities-at-hayes-and-west-drayton-rail-stations-113046-31941731/):

Makes me really angry.....  do they know the trains were "speeding"?   ??? ???

You should check the definition of 'speeding' in a dictionary. 'Exceeding the speed limit' isn't the only definition, y'know...

No, it isn't...

Oh... you mean:

Of course, taken from the OED.

From the Uxbridge Gazette (http://www.uxbridgegazette.co.uk/west-london-news/local-uxbridge-news/2012/10/03/rail-station-tragedies-are-getting-out-of-hand-113046-31957107/):