Coming back from Manchester to Liverpool a few weeks ago,I was
travelling on a class 185.
Arriving into Lime Street when the guard
announced that everyone remain seated
as the train was going to couple up to
another 185 before he opened the doors.
Then the train stopped,people still standing and a second or two later moved forward again to couple up to the other set.
Upon alighting,I asked the guard,why was it not possible to let everyone off the train first,then couple the trains up.
Surely that would have been safer?
He couldn't give me a reasonable answer and refused my question accusing me of
Not knowing what I was talking about as it was completely safe they way they did it.
Knowing that many passengers were still standing anyway because it was a busy service,they still did it that way.
A Network Rail staff member told me it was completely safe,but what if the train didn't successfully couple the first time,were all the passengers to be shunted on the train whilst trying to couple.?
He says I was talking rubbish and told me to move on!
This whole thread has developed because several things have been confused or combined.
Firstly - safety.
What does the OP mean by 'safe' or 'safer'? What injuries are being anticipated? And how many have actually occurred during the coupling process? Is it a real problem, or only a perceived risk?
During coupling speeds are low, so the worst case is that the train is severely jolted. This could cause people to stumble or fall or luggage to become dislodged. There might be some bruises or, in extreme cases, a broken limb. Couplers used on modern stock have reduced the forces needed to make the mechanical connection so this potential cause of injury has almost been eliminated.
The Scharffenberg/Dellner type of coupler fitted to much modern passenger stock - including the Class 185 - does not need to be banged together to get the two couplings to lock together - in fact a gentle push is all that is required; anything more may damage the coupler heads. Knuckle couplers, such as the Buckeye and Tightlock which were in common use on much BR passenger stock do need to be forcibly closed as does the BSI coupler used on DMUs from the Class 150 to the Class 172, but not to the same extent as a Buckeye. (For the pedants - the Class 171 uses Scharffenberg/Dellners
). With the phasing out of older stock the traditional bangs and crashes of shunting operations are also becoming a thing of the past.
There also seems a perceived issue with the delay caused to passengers in the arriving portion of the train which stops, moves forwards and couples before the doors are opened. This delay could depend on whether the trains are being joined at a terminus or en-route. At a terminus there could be an argument to let the passengers off first and then couple the units (but the driver would then have to wait around until everybody had disembarked before he/she couples the units) but doing this en-route may well increase the dwell time to the whole train, including the part which is sat at the platform waiting, as the doors on the arriving train then have to be closed again before the unit moves forward to couple.
There really is no issue if the arriving train couples before the doors are opened. I used to live in Munich and trains on the S1 S-Bahn line join at Neufahrn every 20 minutes with sections coming from the Airport and from Freising. The stock uses the Scharffenberg coupler and the delay was minimal, measured in seconds, before the doors opened. In all the years I never saw anyone lurch or stagger because of the joining - in fact at the back of the train it was scarcely noticeable.