Person hit by train near Bodmin Parkway - 25 April 2015

[whole diary]

[LiskeardRich]

Two friends of mine were passengers on that service at Bodmin. I wont be posting or commenting what they told me, but it certainly sounded unusual. it was from them how I knew of the incident before journey planner.

We got told there had been a fatality at Bodmin when arriving into truro. I have to say they were very swift in organising replacement taxis. I wonder because it was a xc service the fgw station staff thought oh well send the bill to them?

I believe the bill would go to network rail. My friends finally got put in a taxi just after midnight and said the meter was well over ^100 when they got back to Redruth.

[TaplowGreen]

Interesting and reflects a discussion on another thread - so NR^» (Network Rail - home page) do pick up the bill and compensate FGW^▸ (First Great Western) in these circumstances - I wonder why therefore FGW stridently refuse to refund customers who seek alternative arrangements via taxi in similar circumstances under the catch call "consequential losses" line - although having said that on both occasions I've been caught up in fatality related delays and caught a taxi FGW have refunded me after I've written in requesting it so maybe it's just a device to put people off? Certainly I always advise people to claim if they've jumped in cab during disruption whatever the circumstances.

[Palfers]

A well known taxi firm in truro was kept busy that night the boss was only saying 5 mins before they were kept busy it seems very quiet according to the driver I had

[LiskeardRich]

Interesting and reflects a discussion on another thread - so NR^» (Network Rail - home page) do pick up the bill and compensate FGW^▸ (First Great Western) in these circumstances - I wonder why therefore FGW stridently refuse to refund customers who seek alternative arrangements via taxi in similar circumstances under the catch call "consequential losses" line - although having said that on both occasions I've been caught up in fatality related delays and caught a taxi FGW have refunded me after I've written in requesting it so maybe it's just a device to put people off? Certainly I always advise people to claim if they've jumped in cab during disruption whatever the circumstances.

I would expect a invoiced based account is used with approved taxi firms. They certainly don't pay cash there and then for taxis they use. Its a lot easier to have one big invoice to pay rather than loads of small fares.

[TaplowGreen]

Interesting and reflects a discussion on another thread - so NR^» (Network Rail - home page) do pick up the bill and compensate FGW^▸ (First Great Western) in these circumstances - I wonder why therefore FGW stridently refuse to refund customers who seek alternative arrangements via taxi in similar circumstances under the catch call "consequential losses" line - although having said that on both occasions I've been caught up in fatality related delays and caught a taxi FGW have refunded me after I've written in requesting it so maybe it's just a device to put people off? Certainly I always advise people to claim if they've jumped in cab during disruption whatever the circumstances.

I would expect a invoiced based account is used with approved taxi firms. They certainly don't pay cash there and then for taxis they use. Its a lot easier to have one big invoice to pay rather than loads of small fares.

No doubt - so next time I am stranded in Reading due to rail delays I will find out which these approved firms are, and rather than paying them myself I will tell them to charge it to FGW, who can take it out of the compo they receive from NR, it will save a lot of faffing around/admin on both sides with me asking for refunds and them sending me vouchers! 

[grahame]

No doubt - so next time I am stranded in Reading due to rail delays I will find out which these approved firms are, and rather than paying them myself I will tell them to charge it to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), will save a lot of faffing around/admin on both sides with me asking for refunds and them sending me vouchers! 

Rail staff have authorisation forms which form an audit trail, which the taxi firms need to have to make the charge back. Otherwise people stranded in Reading could each grab themselves a taxi, and you'd end up with four taxis all going to [insert place] where one would do.   And you would want to help be sustainable and share, wouldn't you  .

[TaplowGreen]

No doubt - so next time I am stranded in Reading due to rail delays I will find out which these approved firms are, and rather than paying them myself I will tell them to charge it to FGW^▸ (First Great Western), will save a lot of faffing around/admin on both sides with me asking for refunds and them sending me vouchers! 

Rail staff have authorisation forms which form an audit trail, which the taxi firms need to have to make the charge back. Otherwise people stranded in Reading could each grab themselves a taxi, and you'd end up with four taxis all going to [insert place] where one would do.   And you would want to help be sustainable and share, wouldn't you  .

Absolutely, whilst Network Rail staff fly to meetings rather than get the train, I'd be more than happy to "slum it" and share a cab to get to mine! 

[ellendune]

Absolutely, whilst Network Rail staff fly to meetings rather than get the train, I'd be more than happy to "slum it" and share a cab to get to mine! 

Government and other groups are crying out for NR^» (Network Rail - home page) to save money.  They also make them pay full fare for trains and they still have to factor in the cost of staff travel time and overnight accommodation.  Don't blame NR blame the system.

In many ways we get the railway the system dictates. 

And of course remember that under successive governments extra costs for NR have been paid for through fares more than from government. So if you don't want NR to save money don't complain when the fares go up.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Purely in the interests of continuity, I've now moved a few previous posts from a discussion of an unrelated incident, and merged them here.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Western Morning News:

Chef at Rick Stein's crushed by train after running for coffee

A chef at Rick Stein^s restaurant was crushed to death by a train after chasing it to rescue his coffee.

Kyle Kusano-Puffett, from Padstow, died on April 25 after going out drinking with a friend.

The inquest into his death heard how he had climbed out of the train window when it arrived at Bodmin Parkway station and put his coffee above the door.

But as the train departed, he realised he^d left his hot drink behind and chased after it ^ only to fall under the carriage.

The hearing was told Mr Kusano-Puffett suffered severe head injuries and rib fractures as a result of being crushed.

Dr Paul Smith, a toxicologist, found Mr Kusano-Puffett had 219mg of alcohol on his blood ^ the drink-drive limit is 80. He also had 235mg of MDMA per 100ml of blood at the time of his death.

Coroner Barrie van den Berg recorded a verdict of accidental death.

^I come to the obvious conclusion that this was an accident. Sometimes when you have a few drinks what seems like a good idea then is a tragic idea later.^

Mr Kusano-Puffett^s father, Roger Puffett paid tribute to his son. He said: ^We lived an adventurous life. I don^t think that life will ever be idiot proof. People drink, my son drank and it^s unfortunate.^