Fatalities at Iver - merged topic

[whole diary]

[Timmer]

Sad to report another fataility, this time at Iver:

Services between London Paddington and Reading are being disrupted due to a person being hit by a train at Iver.
Two out of four lines have now been re-opened to allow some services to operate. Delays, cancelations, and alterations will continue for some time.

[devon_metro]

Very sad.

Looks like 1545 Pad- Swansea involved.

Lots and lots of delays.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Delays and cancellations still ongoing - from the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website:

Line problem between London Paddington and Reading.
Train services at Acton Main Line are being disrupted due to an earlier fatality between London Paddington and Reading. Short notice alterations and cancellations of up to 30 minutes can be expected.
Last Updated: 12/10/2009 19:18

[Rogang]

...and yet again I was on duty in Control. As with Ealing last week, this was a very dramatic fatality with a lot of counselling now needed for colleagues involved. Because this was the start of the evening rush, the knock on effect was much more dramatic, with over 100 services effected. As before, thoughts must be with the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) driver and those who witnessed the events.

[Mookiemoo]

Ironically, whilst being travelling during the affected period, it didnt actually effect me.

I headed for the 1821 RDG^‡(resolve) to WOS^» (Worcester Shrub Hill - next trains) and ended up on the 1750 to HFD^» (Hereford - next trains) which pathed along the 1821 path and got into WOS about the same time (if not earlier) than the 1821 would have.

First time a jumper has ever done me a favour - as far as i'm concerned at least he/she did something useful for at least one person with their last act!  I have every sympathy for the drivers and those clearing up the mess but really, I have no sympathy for the deceased.  As I've said before, sequester any estate and donate it to charity if not the body who will have to pay compensation for the delays.  May deter people from this if they know their loved ones (who they usually think they are doing a favour for) will suffer more.  

[devon_metro]

...and yet again I was on duty in Control. As with Ealing last week, this was a very dramatic fatality with a lot of counselling now needed for colleagues involved. Because this was the start of the evening rush, the knock on effect was much more dramatic, with over 100 services effected. As before, thoughts must be with the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) driver and those who witnessed the events.

You didn't have anything to do with an HST^▸ (High Speed Train) on the halts service from Oxford then! Bet the regulars enjoyed that.

[Rogang]

It was the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or nothing!!! We had already lost the path for 1W47 which terminated at Oxford, but we needed the seats to go through to Worcester, so 2E95/2E96 became an HST complete with catering. Maximum use of the SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening) at Combe, Finstock etc

[Mookiemoo]

It was the HST^▸ (High Speed Train) or nothing!!! We had already lost the path for 1W47 which terminated at Oxford, but we needed the seats to go through to Worcester, so 2E95/2E96 became an HST complete with catering. Maximum use of the SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening) at Combe, Finstock etc

IWhat was the 1717 from Reading that was terminated at Didcot but which should have gone to Oxford - or at least thats what we at Reading were told. 

I was praying they didnt tell the people on the train so my 1750 delayed for 40 minutes was not a sardine can

[willc]

A welcome benefit of SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening). No doubt accompanied by baffled looks on the faces of those people used to hammering past flat out, who had no idea of the existence of the likes of Combe, Finstock or Ascott.

The 17.21 was surprisingly quiet when I got on at Oxford - where it handily turned up around the time the 17.51 was due - had a pair of sets in coach A to myself all the way home, despite it picking up two trains' worth of passengers.

[johoare]

I can't obviously see incidents posted anywhere else...so will post about it here..

Train services out of Paddington were badly disrupted tonight due to an incident at iver...

I decided not to rush to Paddington as I knew what it would be like.. So I arrived there about 19.25..

When I got there the next trains out were the 19.22, 19.27 and 19.42 departures and were all showing as delayed.. The boards were also saying there were delays due to this "incident" and that they hoped to start running trains again about 18.30.. So that was at least an hour out of date then...

There was an announcement made but we couldn't really hear it...

Finally the 19.27 was announced for platform 13.. As you can imagine that created a bit of a stampede.. Some poor man managed to trip over one of the mats that I think is there to soak up leaking rain water (well I assume so anyway).. Several other passengers helped to pick him up so I didn't need to..

Anyway.. on platform 12 there was a train (a FGW^▸ (First Great Western) rather than the usual Heathrow connect in this platform).. There were some people on it as the doors were open.. I did ask one person already on the train if they knew where that train was going but they didn't.. So I carried on to platform 13.. Except, as you might guess.. the train there was already full...

I asked the train despatcher if he happened to know where the train at platform 12 was going to but before he could answer he had to rush off to stop anyone else getting on the train on 13 so it could leave.. He did then tell people there would be another train in 5 minutes but also completely forgot to come back and answer my question..

I decided to head back to the main concourse.. On the information board on the way back I noticed the 19.18 departure had appeared on the board and was at platform 11.. even though it hadn't been on the board previously.. This train is first stop Maidenhead.. Walking back down platform 12 there were various drops of blood which I can only assume came from the poor man who fell over rushing to platform 13.. There were also people still on thetrain on platform 12  (in fact they might still be there now  ).. I got on the 19.18.. It was half empty as most people were still either on platform 13 waiting or somewhere in between I think..

So although my journey wasn't too bad in the end.. the communication and organisation was totally rubbish.. Not that I'm surprised to be honest.. But someone somewhere managed to make a bad situation much much worse..

Will they ever learn? I'm sure (for example) the 19.18 didn't suddenly miraculously appear in platform 11 to the surprise of everyone..someone surely had to drive it there? Well at least I hope so..I also wonder why the platform 12 train had open doors as that just invites people to get on.. As to my opinion of making people rush to platform 13/14... hhmmm....

I did tell Ollie about the incident with the passenger who got hurt on platform 12 as I was pretty sure that it wasn't reported to a member of staff at the time and apart from anything else someone eventually would have wondered where the blood came from.. Thanks Ollie 

[Ollie]

I disagree that people are forced to rush to platform 13/14 - in reality what is likely is that people saw it was the 19:27 departure and figured they had to rush for it.

In regard to the incident on Platform 12 - I did call up Paddington control room - as I told you, and they hadn't been made aware, so I can only assume the gent is well, as if an ambulance required Network Rail would have been informed.

Information is still poor at times, and this is unfortunately because it can still be pretty sketchy on what's occuring and which train will do what. Hence trains being cancelled then actually being run. I suspect this may be what happened to your 19:18, but I couldn't possibly say for sure.

Screens showing out of date information is obviously not good - and no doubt lessons will be learnt from todays mess.

[SDS]

Notwork Rail are cr*p when it comes to disruption. They cant keep the boards up to date, they cant distribute information on the radios.
There was an internal brief which explained who is supposed to do what during disruption. I see that fell apart today.

The only information us platform staff got was from our own managers who directly called up swindon. That is supposed to come from Notwork Rail PAD^» (Paddington (London) - next trains) control.

Some trains actually left without being advertised because of how full they were before the announcement to hold all trains at PAD was made. Notwork Rail were trying to order us to allow us to advertise them, despite the warning that the trains were already overcrowded.

Several trains went out completely full and standing both in standard and first class. There was also a train problem (which I cant go into for obvious reasons) that caused further delays.

No reservations didn't help matters either, but you have a choice to make. Do we delay the trains further and reserve the seats or do we try and get them boarded and out as quickly as possible.

It also doesn't help when your trying to tell passengers that you have no information and then they start throwing abuse at you. Nor does it help when you get passengers shouting that because they pay ^x a year for first class ticket and they "want seat G 06 F come hell or high water" and "why the hell is that lot in there".

The bicycle passengers were also the usual abusive selves again. 6 means 6 not 7/8/9.


To quote a manager "This is the worse ive seen it in 2 years".

[johoare]

I disagree that people are forced to rush to platform 13/14 - in reality what is likely is that people saw it was the 19:27 departure and figured they had to rush for it.

Well yes I would agree usually.. But today it was proven.. As soon as the platform was advertised we all set off.. And a lot of us didn't get on the train...I think people know that when there are very few trains it's best to get there as soon as possible if you need to be somewhere for a reason.. Maybe the man who fell over had a very good reason to be on that train (although I'm pretty sure he didn't make it on to it)..

[johoare]

It also doesn't help when your trying to tell passengers that you have no information and then they start throwing abuse at you. Nor does it help when you get passengers shouting that because they pay ^x a year for first class ticket and they "want seat G 06 F come hell or high water" and "why the hell is that lot in there".

The bicycle passengers were also the usual abusive selves again. 6 means 6 not 7/8/9.


To quote a manager "This is the worse ive seen it in 2 years".

And oh dear.. that is not acceptable either from passengers...not in the slightest..

[Electric train]

I was on the 16:27 which got capped at Hayes, the driver did give the reason why but could not help with any further information.

Quite a few passengers want to go on to Slough, Maidenhead, Reading but there is no bus service from Hayes to Slough you have to go the Heathrow!   The woman who runs the taxi office at Hayes went off to try and get some on the night drivers to come in early, no sign what so ever of any FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff at Hayes, PA^▸ (Public Address) system does not work at the booking hall level or the duty station staff just gave up

After only a short wait a group of 6 of us got into a taxi to Maidenhead, the driver wanted ^15 each which was talked down to ^10 each

These incidents are difficult to deal with neither NR^» (Network Rail - home page) or the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s know when the Police will release the scene cack to NR, I have looked at the performance stats for yesterday unusually the fatality (suicide) is down as a TOC incident and not NR