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Class 802 failure between Exeter and Tiverton Parkway requiring evacuation (13/09)

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43096

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Having looked into it some more, you are probably right - It wasn't the unit I originally thought it was. 389 passengers on a 4-car Voyager? Blimey.
I think you’d be glad to just be moving again. They had an HST forward from Exeter.
 

JN114

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Three words: standard coupler height.

Then the Voyager can drag the whole lot at 5mph to Exeter or Taunton or wherever. I get all the issues with brakes etc but the railway has got to stop disappearing up its own backside with incidents like this and realise that getting the punters moving is #1 priority. An almost 8hr delay is just totally unacceptable and indefensible on every level.

There wasn’t really anything that could have been done quicker. Evacuating 400 people down a narrow ladder; along the track with poor underfoot conditions in the dark and then back up a narrow ladder takes time. If it’s rushed and people get hurt they end up in an RAIB report.

It’s correct that it’s really not great for the persons involved to be delayed that much; but the vast, vast majority of people directly involved were reportedly very patient and understanding of the situation - only the hindsight brigade who weren’t actually affected seem to be outraged by the incident.
 

Samuel88

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I've just seen this on the news and think it's absolutely shameful that it took GWR six hours to detrain the passengers! No wonder passengers numbers are falling!
 

Essexman

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Evacuation complete just shy of six hours after the train failed.

The no doubt weary passengers are now on their way back to Exeter St Davids.

Get ready for the s**tstorm tomorrow GWR.

With no vestibule windows to open for fresh air.
 

bnsf734

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Presumably the evacuated passengers had their baggage with them as well, which would be an added problem whilst climbing up and down ladders. No wonder it took 4 hours!
 

WelshBluebird

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If the train failed at 17.10, why on earth did it take so long to get Hitachi staff down to look at it? Would it have taken that long had it been a HST (where GWR's staff deal with problems themselves)?
 

43096

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If the train failed at 17.10, why on earth did it take so long to get Hitachi staff down to look at it? Would it have taken that long had it been a HST (where GWR's staff deal with problems themselves)?
If an HST had had such an air leak, once it had been fixed you're good to go. No TMS to go wrong!
 

Llanigraham

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I've just seen this on the news and think it's absolutely shameful that it took GWR six hours to detrain the passengers! No wonder passengers numbers are falling!

It's very easy to criticise, but I note you don't tell us how you would have handled this incident. Perhaps you would like to?
 

FGW_DID

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I've just seen this on the news and think it's absolutely shameful that it took GWR six hours to detrain the passengers! No wonder passengers numbers are falling!

Perhaps you should leave your contact details with the Control Center, so the next time something like this happens, they can utilise your expert knowledge and experience to resolve the situation in under 15 minutes!
0800-Armchair Expert!
 

221129

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It looks as though the priority was to keep other traffic moving past the incident, thus reducing delays to other passengers.
Which makes it even more infuriating when this wasn't actually the case! Who decided to carry out an evacuation as you have 7 trains queuing on the down?! The GWR higher ups need to get a grip on what is actually going on! No staff at Tiverton when I got back there last night and quite a few passengers not knowing what was going on. And as far as I can tell not even so much of an apology from GWR and Hitachi to passengers today.
 

SamYeager

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Well according to this article they've been offered a full refund and some guy mentions a free journey.
 
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43096

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And as far as I can tell not even so much of an apology from GWR and Hitachi to passengers today.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But what else do you expect from GWR and WorstGroup?
 

221129

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Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But what else do you expect from GWR and WorstGroup?
Well quite, All the execs were ina meeting today apparently patting themselves on the back about some award and not a word was said about last night.
 

_toommm_

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Well according to this article they've been offered a full refund and some guy mentions a free journey.

From what I read on the GWR Twitter, they're giving passengers a full refund (of course) plus a free journey, possibly even a free return, anywhere on the GWR network.
 

Bikeman78

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There wasn’t really anything that could have been done quicker. Evacuating 400 people down a narrow ladder; along the track with poor underfoot conditions in the dark and then back up a narrow ladder takes time. If it’s rushed and people get hurt they end up in an RAIB report.

It’s correct that it’s really not great for the persons involved to be delayed that much; but the vast, vast majority of people directly involved were reportedly very patient and understanding of the situation - only the hindsight brigade who weren’t actually affected seem to be outraged by the incident.

Why didn't the Voyager pull up next to the failure then use a walkway? Making people climb down a ladder, up another and then down a third is a strange way of doing things!
 

D5645

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From what I read on the GWR Twitter, they're giving passengers a full refund (of course) plus a free journey, possibly even a free return, anywhere on the GWR network.

You would have thought those passengers have suffered enough already without having to travel on another 5 vice 10 or 0 vice 10 journey with GWR.
 

NoOnesFool

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Reading the article, it seems GWR offered Domino's pizza to stranded customers, which was a nice touch. It must have been a hell of a huge order!
 

Pokelet

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Out of curiosity, why a Voyager? Purely because this was the closest available unit as GWR had nothing to offer?

Wasn't a Voyager used in the Watford landslip/derailment as the evacuation unit?
 

43055

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Out of curiosity, why a Voyager? Purely because this was the closest available unit as GWR had nothing to offer?

Wasn't a Voyager used in the Watford landslip/derailment as the evacuation unit?
Most likely the best available unit at the time as the only other unit could of been a 15x.

Wasn't the Watford landslide because it is a DMU and not a EMU.
 

yorksrob

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A bad enough air leak on one unit would lock the brakes on and prevent the train from moving.
But I agree that it SHOULD have been possible to uncouple the good unit and use that on its own, I can only surmise that the loss of air "confused" the good unit and resulted in a "computer says no" situation on the unit WITHOUT the air leak.

Transferring passengers into the good unit would be a challenge due to the lack of through gangways, but no worse than transfer along the track into a voyager, which is now underway.

Having everything relying on computers is a disaster waiting to happen.
 
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