Teignmouth - facilities, services, improvements and incidents - merged posts

[whole diary]

[Lee]

A primary school boy's life was saved after firefighters rescued him from a tiny ledge above the railway line in Teignmouth (link below.)
http://thisisdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=141507&command=displayContent&sourceNode=257390&home=yes&more_nodeId1=257393&contentPK=20085947

A Network Rail spokesman said during such incidents, drivers are immediately notified through signallers.

He said:

"Drivers are advised to slow down and proceed with caution. Speed limits can even be lowered down to walking pace - about five miles-per-hour - in case they need to stop suddenly.

"We take safety extremely seriously. We work with emergency services and act on their advice so we can take steps to alert train drivers of any problems."

[WashuChan]

Lucky lad..sounds like it needs to have a bit better protection from the kiddies.

[Lee]

From the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website :

Train services between Newton Abbot and Exeter St Davids are being disrupted due to a line-side fire in the Teignmouth area.Short notice alterations, cancellations and delays of up to 60 minutes can be expected. Trains are now able to run in both directions at a reduced speed. First Great Western and Cross Country are limited between them to three trains an hour in each direction. Replacement road transport will also be in operation. Any customers who do not wish to travel today will have their tickets honoured tomorrow.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Fears about gas cylinders, again, apparently!

Trains between Exeter and Plymouth were severely disrupted as firefighters tackled a blaze at a holiday cottage.  The blaze broke out at the chalet near Teignmouth and the line had to be closed for two hours during Sunday evening because of safety concerns.  Firefighters feared gas cylinders nearby might explode in the heat and there was asbestos in the building.

For full details, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7654063.stm

[Super Guard]

I was working Sunday evening and have to say that the vast majority of travellers were understanding and patient while we got everyone on their way, even though trying to get hold of alternative road transport was slow and difficult, so thanks from me.

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

A controversial device has been turned off at a Devon railway station, after complaints from school children.

Pupils catching trains from Teignmouth were subjected to a high-pitched noise from a Mosquito device, installed to try to reduce anti-social behaviour.

First Great Western has apologised and said it will not activate the device when passengers are travelling. The company said it would continue to use it late at night, when the station was most at risk from vandalism.

The device emits a high-frequency sound which is normally audible to people under the age of 25. The "youth crowd dispersal device" had previously been switched on all day, until pupils complained.

Dominic Falco from Teignmouth said the Mosquito was affecting some students very badly. "Trying to study for exams with a splitting migraine is no joke," the 18-year-old student said. "It doesn't make sense to attack children going to and from school."

First Great Western spokeswoman Cath Millman admitted that legitimate travellers should not have been subjected to the constant noise. "We put a stop to it as soon as we found out about it," she said.

Since it was installed about 18 months ago, Ms Millman said there had been a big reduction in graffiti and crime at the station. She said it was a really useful device, which properly used, would benefit everyone.

"It makes the station a nicer place to be," she added.

[thetrout]

I don't see the point in those things...

they have them on the Public loo's in Westbury & Bradford on Avon... Yet utterly utterly pointless as you always see "youths" hanging around them...! So from my experience, they don't appear to be that useful after all... Personally the noise doesn't bother me... Listening to a 2yo shreak is by far worse...!

[Lee]

From the Herald Express:

'Mosquito' inventor welcomes switch off at station

The man who invented a machine designed to deter teenage vandals has welcomed the device being turned off during the day at a South Devon railway station.

Howard Stapleton has campaigned for controls on the use of his device, known as a mosquito, which creates very high-frequency noise which normally only people under the age of 20 can hear.

The aim of installing the machine at Teignmouth railway station was to stop groups of troublesome teenagers gathering in areas known to suffer from anti-social behaviour.

But there had been complaints as the machine had been working about every 20 minutes for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to the discomfort of travellers and babies.

Schoolchildren from South Devon Liberal Youth, councillors and MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament) wrote to station owners First Great Western, which has agreed to put the device on a timer to come on only when the station is unmanned.

Mr Stapleton, managing director of Compound Security in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, welcomed the move.

He said: "That is how the mosquito device should be used. On railway stations in Holland it is connected to and activated by sophisticated CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) systems and only used when someone is acting suspiciously.

"The system is effective. One Plymouth school installed them after replacing ^20,000 worth of panes of glass. After the system was put in, the annual damage bill was ^30.

"But there the machines are principally used in extended holiday periods.

"It concerns me that they are being used to create no-go areas for young people. That is discriminatory.

"I am the father of five children and I never intended the machine to be used to keep young people out of areas.

"That is why I have been talking to the Home Office but no-one in this country is interested in legislating to control the use of the machines, though they are talking about it in Holland which I am very pleased about."

He said of the 5,000 units sold, some 3,000 are used in Britain.

A First Great Western spokesman said that following a meeting with Teignbridge MP Richard Younger-Ross it had been decided to only turn on the mosquito device at Teignmouth when the station is unmanned.

[Louis94]

Could not help but notice today, how at Teignmouth the departure screens kept disappearing every 5-10 minutes and showing the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) logo in various different forms, also noticed that when the screens did this, the automatic announcements failed to go off aswell! 

Any idea what on earth is going on, the system seems to be so unreliable, or is this just a moment the system is going through in preparation for the new CIS^▸ (Customer Information System)?

Also noticed (when the system was working  ) how Dorris now announces non-stop services there! "The train now approaching platform x does not stop here. Please stand clear of the edge of platform x"

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for raising those points, Louis94 - and welcome to the Coffee Shop forum! 

I'm not an expert on the situation at Teignmouth, but I rather suspect the problems you describe are typical of occasional CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) failures which seem to occur all over the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) area these days.  The system is getting old, and is clearly beginning to show more and more cracks appearing! 

[Nibat]

Just to update you on the current situation.

The CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) at Teignmouth has been down now for about a week and a half.  Apparently everything started due to a power cut at Dawlish from where the system is fed, the modem failed then and spme fault on the line made it worse.

The system has been working intermitently today because the engineer has been working on it all day and he had to connect and disconnect the modem all the time.  Looks like it has been sorted, although dome errors on the telephone line still remain and he couls come again tomorrow to try to definitely fix it.

The system is very unreliable due to all the components being very very old.  In this case the modems cannot be found in the market any more, so every time one of them fails has to be 'nicked' from somewhere else or recycled from other modems

Anyway, the new CIS system is by the looks of it coming soon...

[Louis94]

Just to update you on the current situation.

The CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) at Teignmouth has been down now for about a week and a half.  Apparently everything started due to a power cut at Dawlish from where the system is fed, the modem failed then and spme fault on the line made it worse.

The system has been working intermitently today because the engineer has been working on it all day and he had to connect and disconnect the modem all the time.  Looks like it has been sorted, although dome errors on the telephone line still remain and he couls come again tomorrow to try to definitely fix it.

The system is very unreliable due to all the components being very very old.  In this case the modems cannot be found in the market any more, so every time one of them fails has to be 'nicked' from somewhere else or recycled from other modems

Anyway, the new CIS system is by the looks of it coming soon...

Ah that makes sense now!

Any idea how long until the new CIS system is due for fitting? weeks, months?
and also, any idea who the announcement voices are going to be?

[James158]

Which stations will be getting the new customer information system? Does that mean that there will be new departure boards and announcements? When will it be up and running?

[ldf1985]

Also noticed (when the system was working  ) how Dorris now announces non-stop services there! "The train now approaching platform x does not stop here. Please stand clear of the edge of platform x"

It sounds as if the announcement aspect of the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) has been upgraded - from what I've learnt, the 'ex-Wessex system' didn't have the capability to announce the warning of through trains.

[Louis94]

Also noticed (when the system was working  ) how Dorris now announces non-stop services there! "The train now approaching platform x does not stop here. Please stand clear of the edge of platform x"

It sounds as if the announcement aspect of the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System) has been upgraded - from what I've learnt, the 'ex-Wessex system' didn't have the capability to announce the warning of through trains.

Sounds it, or it has just been enabled after wessex having it disabled?