Fatalities at and around Southall Station (merged topics)

[whole diary]

[Lee]

There has been a dramatic rise in the number of Asian women , including Indians , committing suicide on just one stretch of a railway track in west London , an internal report has revealed (link below.)
http://www.rmtbristol.org.uk/2007/09/great_western_mainline_claims.html#more

The First Great Western manager's report said one third of the total such suicides in England and Wales now happen on the line passing through Southall , which has a very large Asian community and a "disproportionately high number" of the total fatalities in the area were women of Asian origin.

Figures showed that 80 of the 240 rail suicides nationally last year were on that particular stretch of line.

A women's right group has claimed that the suicides were linked to the prevalence of domestic violence in Asian families.

[smokey]

There was a section of the Midland Main Line know as Suicide Mile somewhere north of Leicester, again a High Asian population.

[tom-langley]

I experienced the disruption first hand tonight trying to get home from Paddington.

I do not mean to be insensitive, but so many fatalities happen at Southall station, something must be done to try and prevent this.

Why can there not be tube style platform edge doors (see picture)?

And if this is too expensive perhaps fence off the fast line platforms, I know access is needed to these platforms sometimes for late night/early morning services, but why not separate the platforms from the normal station and just have gated access for when it is needed?

[Mookiemoo]

I experienced the disruption first hand tonight trying to get home from Paddington.

I do not mean to be insensitive, but so many fatalities happen at Southall station, something must be done to try and prevent this.

Why can there not be tube style platform edge doors (see picture)?

And if this is too expensive perhaps fence off the fast line platforms, I know access is needed to these platforms sometimes for late night/early morning services, but why not separate the platforms from the normal station and just have gated access for when it is needed?

Or why not do what they do elsewhere - scrape up the remains, get the trains running and ask questions later.  99.99% are suicides - why inconvenience several thousands of passengers

[Timmer]

There are a lot of fatalities in the Southall area its very sad to say. If someone is determined to end their life there is very little you can do to stop it as it only takes seconds. Its very hard to make either a railway station or the railway line totally secure to stop this from happening.

[devon_metro]

As hinted by Timmer, they would only go and find somewhere else to do it 

[Mookiemoo]

There are a lot of fatalities in the Southall area its very sad to say. If someone is determined to end their life there is very little you can do to stop it as it only takes seconds. Its very hard to make either a railway station or the railway line totally secure to stop this from happening.

Which is why I dont understand why they cause hours of disruption over it!

I personally would not be horrified to find people suing the estate of the deceased - might make them think of a less disruptive way to do it

[Phil]

The sad fact is, a lot of suicides are a tragic form of attention seeking. Even if some entrepreneur were to buy a length of line complete with overbridge and run driverless trains up and down all day long, and charge people a small fee for the chance to jump off the bridge and top themselves at little or no inconvenience to anyone else, people will still choose a busy main line to make their point.

[Tickets Please]

yeah of course it will.

hmmm let me think - im depressed and suicidal and i was thinking of jumping in front of a train at my local station - oh no, better not, someone might sue me for their delay. gosh i better not, i feel all better now.

yeah i see it happening

[Timmer]

Which is why I dont understand why they cause hours of disruption over it!

I personally would not be horrified to find people suing the estate of the deceased - might make them think of a less disruptive way to do it

I'll let our traincrew posters reply on your first point as to why it takes the time that it does before they reopen the line.

On your second point, do you think it would make any difference? When you are in such a state to want to end your life, I'm sure you don't give a monkeys about the people you leave behind and the mess you are leaving for them to clear up as well as them having to live with the fact that you wanted to end your life for the rest of their lives.

[Mookiemoo]

yeah of course it will.

hmmm let me think - im depressed and suicidal and i was thinking of jumping in front of a train at my local station - oh no, better not, someone might sue me for their delay. gosh i better not, i feel all better now.

yeah i see it happening

It might if they think of the impact on their loved ones

Having lost a cousin to suicide (not train related) I know that one of the reasons he did it was because he thought it was easier for his wife and kids if he did

He drove his car into a bridge wall at 90mph head on so as not to involve anyone else. (he left a video diary explaining why he did it)

Maybe a few would be moved elsewhere (no they wouldnt be stopped - if they are that determined they will do it) but it might make them consider an alternative

[tom-langley]

Granted you will send them elsewhere, but my point is that, if you introduce measures to try and deter people, it may increase the chance of intervention> There is no way anyone can intervene at a railway station because before you know anything its too late.

[Ollie]

Whenever a fatality occurs, the line is closed, and British Transport Police take control, or local police until BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) turn up. They need to investigate whether there is suspicious circumstances. Line doesn't open full/partial until they say so.

Also people tend to forget that a body doesn't always stay in one piece when it's hit...

[Steve44]

I feel sorry for the driver or whoever has to witness it.  I've been stuck at both Paddington and Reading on my way home on more than one occassion because of a fatality, one time on a train outside of Reading for nearly an hour because there was no free platform, it then ended up going into a terminating platform and we got stuck at reading for another 90mins. 
I see there was another fatality at hilsea today, also.  Busy day for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) then.
I think the Worst disruption i've ever faced was back in July last year when there was all those Landslides and flooding (i was travelling up from Chichester to Charlbury) and it ended up going from our scheduled 2 trains to 6. It was awfully chaotic,you'd get so far and then the train would be terminated and they couldn't give out any information, because they just didnt know when any train was actually going to arrive.  I must say, the guys working for southern in the office at Chichester station were extremely helpful whereas when we managed to get to Reading after 7 hours (that's how chaotic it was!) FGW staff really weren't that helpful or supportive atall... so i hope they were better turned out today!
(sorry to go off topic there!)

[swlines]

Platform edge doors can only be used when trains are in fixed formation and doors are always going to be in the same place - ie, stopping less than half a metre on either side of the stopping marker. The Jubilee Line works by doing this, when stopped a computer makes contact with the computer on the platform at the marker, and illuminates an Accurate Stop light if it is, indeed, an accurate stop.

It may be possible on the Turbo platforms but I doubt it is wise to introduce until Crossrail comes in.