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Article: Wheelchair User Difficulty at Milton Keynes

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Watershed

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That depends where the blockage was - did it run south at all?

If anyone knows the precise time of this incident it might be possible to use Realtime Trains to work out what may have been possible.
The issue was near Linslade. So no reason in principle why the train couldn't have run south to Bletchley, if that was deemed the best option.
 
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cuccir

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I don't like the way the article attacks the staff and implies that H&S concerns are frivolous. As others have said there should be better systems to support passengers and staff.

However, it would seem willful ignorance to claim that the story is majorly exaggerated: just look at the number of cases reported of similar incidents (from a quick, unsystematic google). Either each of these is disingenuous half-stories, or there is a systematic problem.

And these are just the stories that get to the press. I recently examined a PhD thesis by a researcher in computer science testing new 'dash-cam' style technology to help wheelchair users record their journeys on smartphones to help document accessibility problems. As part of this research he interviewed the participants about their experiences of accessibility on public transport. Multiple participants had examples on the rail/tube network of where broken lifts, or ramps/assistance that didn't show, resulted in them having to rely on good-will of fellow passengers, and occasionally getting stuck. None of these resulted in news stories of course, and I can only conclude that there are multiple near misses solved by bystander action, or minor delays for disabled people, on our network every day.

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Edit , accidentally posted while writing:

I fully buy the idea that the guy in this case was perhaps he was hasty in trying to haul himself up the stairs, but the alternative would likely be a lengthy delay, and people do not always make good decisions in stressful circumstances. But yes, given that there are numerous minor delays for disabled travellers on the rail network, I also think it seems reasonable to believe that once in a while circumstances combine to make that delay more serious and troubling.
 
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Spartacus

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While in the past it would have been standard procedure to help help the disabled person by wheeling or lifting them up and down the stairs (just as it was to reverse a wheelchair up through double doors into the train before ramps were common), these days they simply wouldn't be covered for it, not least due to the risk of accidents occurring just as they have done in the past. The only exception would an emergency situation when the proper equipment would have to be used, and then by someone briefed in it's use. That said, that only applies to employees, other passengers could have assisted him.

It's a tough one because lifts will break down, especially when they're often subject to vandalism as railway ones often are (resulting in lifts being locked closed outside of staffed hours), and there's sometimes little obvious alternative, though I've known plenty of cases where trains have been replatformed or special stops inserted when there's been prior notification, I sometimes don't think it gets the priority it should.
 

zwk500

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That really does not seem to be necessary or proportionate, and indeed these would all likely have taken far longer. With little or nothing running south of MK, shunting the train to another platform, running it to Bletchley or arranging a SSO at Wolverton on its way back north would have been the logical options.
Stopping at Wolverton is just about the worst option, given there's no step free access at all from platforms 1-3, and the step down from the train at all platforms is considerable.
That depends where the blockage was - did it run south at all?

If anyone knows the precise time of this incident it might be possible to use Realtime Trains to work out what may have been possible.
A big issue is that because of the scale of the disruption it wouldn't have been clear at first how long the wait would have been for the next train to anywhere.
 

43066

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So really this is down to whether the guard was aware of the broken lift. If so, why didn't they think about how the passenger was going to get off the platform? If not, why weren't they aware?

Who would make them aware?

Often announcements are made about lifts being out of order at key locations, it would be interesting to know if the crew (or the passenger for that matter) had been made aware of this problem in advance.

That really does not seem to be necessary or proportionate, and indeed these would all likely have taken far longer. With little or nothing running south of MK, shunting the train to another platform, running it to Bletchley or arranging a SSO at Wolverton on its way back north would have been the logical options.

As we all know it isn’t always as easy as just shunting trains around at the drop of a hat, or running them to other destinations which presumably might have been in an engineering possession? There are various operational reasons why that might not have been practical, or even physically possible.

I did talk to a disability activist about this on Twitter and the best we could come up with was to call 999 and get the fire brigade to bring an evacuation stretcher and carry him up, or to have the lift manually wound by an engineer if the fault made that still possible.

Again, both aren’t exactly ideal. Calling 999 really shouldn’t be done other than for genuine emergencies. Would the fire brigade even agree to attend something like that? Ultimately they aren’t there to act as station porters when the railway has suffered an equipment failure. Same for a lift engineer, they aren’t going to be available at the drop of a hat for someone who isn’t actually trapped in a lift.

Once this situation was discovered it would likely have been better all round to convey the passenger elsewhere on the train’s return journey and put them into a taxi with wheelchair access?

Does anyone have more information on the incident? Without additional information, I don't think the article can be deemed a credible source, as there are inaccuracies and omissions.

The article makes no attempt to get answers to the key questions; this is perhaps because the answers would make the article less sensational in nature.

I’d agree with this. It’s thin on detail and written in quite a sensationalist way.
 

Horizon22

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Ultimately we would need to know where they boarded, when they were alighting and - if relevant - any interchange points.

If they required assistance the origin station should have phoned the destination (or interchange station) to say “hello mr Jones travelling from X to Y changing at Z on 1A01, coach 3, needs ramp assistance). This process is slightly different though if a guard put them on.

The issue probably being that a) the destination / interchange station didn’t tell the origin station the lifts were out of service or b) regrettably en route the lifts went out of service.

If it’s A) that they should say in the original call “ah sorry no step free access here at MKC” and alternative arrangements made (such as the nearest accessible station before/after on that train and taxi onwards). If that failed that needs to be followed up.

If B) it’s certainly harder to do but you could call control to advise so they can try and reach the guard (if not DOO) and try and come to some arrangement similar to above.

If the person does end up at MKC about to be disembarked, conscientious staff might try and meet that coach and although less than ideal they’d have to be overcarried and circulate. Lifts go out of service all the time and is one of those things, even if it can be a major inconvenience to mobility impaired people, front line staff have no control over that, but they can resolve the mitigations.

If all else has failed - like it appears to - I’m really not sure what you would do with a mobility impaired passenger on your station unable to get up/down. I’d probably get them to travel back on a train and circulate (so long as it wasn’t an island platform). If services can be replatformed that might resolve the issue (as might a special stop order) but I doubt that is always possible on a busy WCML.

PS: interesting to see Avanti pass it onto LNWR - if it was Avanti staff that put the passenger onto a service to change at a station with a known a accessibility problem, they are equally (arguably more) to blame. Either way the communication was missing.
 
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zwk500

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Who would make them aware?

Often announcements are made about lifts being out of order at key locations, it would be interesting to know if the crew (or the passenger for that matter) had been made aware of this problem in advance.
There has been a notice on National Rail Enquiries for some time now.
As we all know it isn’t always as easy as just shunting trains around at the drop of a hat, or running them to other destinations which presumably might have been in an engineering possession? There are various operational reasons why that might not have been practical, or even physically possible.
Agreed.
Again, both aren’t exactly ideal. Calling 999 really shouldn’t be done other than for genuine emergencies. Would the fire brigade even agree to attend something like that? Ultimately they aren’t there to act as station porters when the railway has suffered an equipment failure. Same for a lift engineer, they aren’t going to be available at the drop of a hat for someone who isn’t actually trapped in a lift.
Again, agreed.
Once this situation was discovered it would likely have been better all round to convey the passenger elsewhere on the train’s return journey and put them into a taxi with wheelchair access?
Given how little was running, this may not have been possible.

Ultimately we would need to know where they boarded, when they were alighting and - if relevant - any interchange points.

If they required assistance the origin station should have phoned the destination (or interchange station) to say “hello mr Jones travelling from X to Y changing at Z on 1A01, coach 3, needs ramp assistance). This process is slightly different though if a guard put them on.

The issue probably being that a) the destination / interchange station didn’t tell the origin station the lifts were out of service or b) regrettably en route the lifts went out of service.

If it’s A) that they should say in the original call “ah sorry no step free access here at MKC” and alternative arrangements made (such as the nearest accessible station before/after on that train and taxi onwards). If that failed that needs to be followed up.

If B) it’s certainly harder to do but you could call control to advise so they can try and reach the guard (if not DOO) and try and come to some arrangement similar to above.

If the person does end up at MKC about to be disembarked, conscientious staff might try and meet that coach and although less than ideal they’d have to be overcarried and circulate. Lifts go out of service all the time and is one of those things, even if it can be a major inconvenience to mobility impaired people, front line staff have no control over that, but they can resolve the mitigations.

If all else has failed - like it appears to - I’m really not sure what you would do with a mobility impaired passenger on your station unable to get up/down. I’d probably get them to travel back on a train and circulate (so long as it wasn’t an island platform). If services can be replatformed that might resolve the issue but I doubt that is always possible on a busy WCML.
Again, in this situation it's almost certain the individual was attempting to travel to Euston and the disruption caused them to abandon that journey at an unplanned location. Because of the disruption, options to shunt or circulate the passenger via Northampton/Bletchley were probably also off the table. I think the incident itself occurred within the area controlled by the workstation that controls Milton Keynes Central as well, so the Signaller would have been focusing on the incident response and would have very limited time to shunt a train around MK. The lifts at MKC have been out of service for a while, so there should have been a plan of some kind.
 

Horizon22

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There has been a notice on National Rail Enquiries for some time now.

Agreed.

Again, agreed.

Given how little was running, this may not have been possible.


Again, in this situation it's almost certain the individual was attempting to travel to Euston and the disruption caused them to abandon that journey at an unplanned location. Because of the disruption, options to shunt or circulate the passenger via Northampton/Bletchley were probably also off the table. I think the incident itself occurred within the area controlled by the workstation that controls Milton Keynes Central as well, so the Signaller would have been focusing on the incident response and would have very limited time to shunt a train around MK. The lifts at MKC have been out of service for a while, so there should have been a plan of some kind.

If that is the case then it’s an incredibly difficult (and rare) things to resolve.

If you can’t continue forward, can’t stay on board (if unit is going ECS) and can’t get off the station - the only physical option is to wait around for another service on that platform(s) or call for special assistance. In such a rare incident, you’d escalate it to Control who may well call the fire brigade.

I’ve dealt with customer service and information control queries like this for years, and even I am struggling to work out what the best solution would be that wouldn’t seriously disadvantage the passenger. It may well be this was explained and the passenger was so (understandably) frustrated that they took matters into their own hands.
 

zwk500

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I’ve dealt with customer service and information control queries like this for years, and even I am struggling to work out what the best solution would be that wouldn’t seriously disadvantage the passenger. It may well be this was explained and the passenger was so (understandably) frustrated that they took matters into their own hands.
This is what I suspect happened. However Avanti and LNWR do need to answer the question as to why there wasn't a suitable plan already in place given the lifts were known to be out of service.
 

43066

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If you can’t continue forward, can’t stay on board (if unit is going ECS) and can’t get off the station - the only physical option is to wait around for another service on that platform(s) or call for special assistance. In such a rare incident, you’d escalate it to Control who may well call the fire brigade.

To be fair perhaps the fire brigade solution starts to make a lot more sense if someone is genuinely going to be trapped on a station for hours and there’s nothing moving. It’s very unfortunate this situation occurred in the first place but once discovered it’s too late for that of course.
 

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Ultimately we would need to know where they boarded, when they were alighting and - if relevant - any interchange points.

If they required assistance the origin station should have phoned the destination (or interchange station) to say “hello mr Jones travelling from X to Y changing at Z on 1A01, coach 3, needs ramp assistance). This process is slightly different though if a guard put them on.

The issue probably being that a) the destination / interchange station didn’t tell the origin station the lifts were out of service or b) regrettably en route the lifts went out of service.

No. The issue was that he was travelling to Euston, not MKC, and the train terminated at MKC due to disruption after he boarded. Had the disruption not occurred, the situation would never have arisen.

What we don't know is when the decision was made to terminate it there. If it was after it had passed Rugby there weren't many options left.
 

Horizon22

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This is what I suspect happened. However Avanti and LNWR do need to answer the question as to why there wasn't a suitable plan already in place given the lifts were known to be out of service.

The plan is normally “mobility passengers don’t come to/from this station”. Most TOCs have arrangements to taxi passengers to/from the inaccessible station to/from the nearest accessible one and this is pretty standard practice.

The issue here being the passenger stopped at MKC out of course and apparently (?) with no alternative to continue southbound (was northbound option a reality?). I’m physically unsure what a station could actually do in that instance but I’d be willing to hear suggestions (that don’t involve calling fire brigade) as it’s clearly a gap that may occur so I’m intrigued to see how any contingency plans could be better.

There’s so many unknowns - when was it known the train was going to terminate? Who told the passenger? How long had they been waiting already? How severe was the incident?

No. The issue was that he was travelling to Euston, not MKC, and the train terminated at MKC due to disruption after he boarded. Had the disruption not occurred, the situation would never have arisen.

What we don't know is when the decision was made to terminate it there. If it was after it had passed Rugby there weren't many options left.

Thanks, I’ve now gathered that (and expand on the difficulties that provided above).

To be fair perhaps the fire brigade solution starts to make a lot more sense if someone is genuinely going to be trapped on a station for hours and there’s nothing moving. It’s very unfortunate this situation occurred in the first place but once discovered it’s too late for that of course.

As you say such a rare and unfortunate set of circumstances.
 

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The plan is normally “mobility passengers don’t come to/from this station”. Most TOCs have arrangements to taxi passengers to/from the inaccessible station to/from the nearest accessible one and this is pretty standard practice.

The issue here being the passenger stopped at MKC out of course and apparently (?) with no alternative to continue southbound (was northbound option a reality?). I’m physically unsure what a station could actually do in that instance but I’d be willing to hear suggestions (that don’t involve calling fire brigade) as it’s clearly a gap that may occur so I’m intrigued to see how any contingency plans could be better.

If anyone knows the precise time involved, a check of RTT would probably let us see if there'd have been another option like taking him to Bletchley or back to Rugby. I suspect there wasn't.

The disruption was very severe and I believe resulted in overnight strandings at Euston, if it's the incident I'm thinking of.

The reason LNR would have been involved is that the only Avanti staff at MKC are the dispatchers (LNR don't have dispatchers, their trains are self-dispatched by the guard). All other staff at MKC are LNR staff.
 

Watershed

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What we don't know is when the decision was made to terminate it there. If it was after it had passed Rugby there weren't many options left.
Hardly so. It could have been sent into platforms 1, 2, 3 or 4 at Milton Keynes. That said, I get that in disruption there may not have been enough time to communicate that to the likely very busy signaller, in which case - once the problem was identified upon arrival, it should either have been agreed that the train would either shunt to a different platform at MKC, or run to Bletchley, or a SSO should have been arranged for Rugby or Northampton.

Simply leaving the passenger to sort something out for themselves is unacceptable.
 

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Hardly so. It could have been sent into platforms 1, 2, 3 or 4 at Milton Keynes. That said, I get that in disruption there may not have been enough time to communicate that to the likely very busy signaller, in which case - once the problem was identified upon arrival, it should either have been agreed that the train would either shunt to a different platform at MKC, or run to Bletchley, or a SSO should have been arranged for Rugby or Northampton.

Simply leaving the passenger to sort something out for themselves is unacceptable.

I'd agree that whoever put the ramp down should have dealt with the problem before the train was sent on its way (unless it was just sat there the whole time, in which case unlocking it and letting him have use of the toilet on board would have solved the more pressing problem). The train may well have been stuck there - the selfies I've seen from him show it still there.
 

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Hardly so. It could have been sent into platforms 1, 2, 3 or 4 at Milton Keynes. That said, I get that in disruption there may not have been enough time to communicate that to the likely very busy signaller, in which case - once the problem was identified upon arrival, it should either have been agreed that the train would either shunt to a different platform at MKC, or run to Bletchley, or a SSO should have been arranged for Rugby or Northampton.

Simply leaving the passenger to sort something out for themselves is unacceptable.

As you say the alternatives may not have been feasibly possible given the time constraints. Ultimately the request could be made to replatform but that is the signallers’ gift and might have caused more disruption if blocking the wrong platform. Workload was likely pretty intense and the request might simply not have got through in time.

Ideally they’d have got a manager down to platform and explain the unfortunate circumstances.

Do we know where this train went afterwards? Did it go in passenger service northbound? Or ECS to restart or into depot? Or did it just sit there. If it was the first, then going wrong way but at least you can get a taxi from nearest accessible. If it’s second perhaps agreement could have reached by a senior controller to make an exception for this passenger given the circumstances to be kept with the guard or behind the driver for assistance at the next station. If it’s just sat there or the latter option, you really are stuffed and there’s only so much within station staff’s power.
 

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Do we know where this train went afterwards? Did it go in passenger service northbound? Or ECS to restart or into depot? Or did it just sit there. If it was the first, then going wrong way but at least you can get a taxi from nearest accessible. If it’s second perhaps agreement could have reached by a senior controller to make an exception for this passenger given the circumstances to be kept with the guard or behind the driver for assistance at the next station. If it’s just sat there or the latter option, you really are stuffed and there’s only so much within station staff’s power.

The article I read about it showed his selfie on the platform which showed a train still present, so it looks like it may have been stuck there. If it was powered, it could I suppose have been unlocked to allow him to use the toilet.
 

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it should either have been agreed that the train would either shunt to a different platform at MKC, or run to Bletchley, or a SSO should have been arranged for Rugby or Northampton

There certainly are situations where the assistance processes fail. As a DOO driver a few times I changed ends in London to find a wheelchair user marooned on the train because the need for assistance hadn’t been communicated by the origin station (or had been communicated but had been misunderstood/forgotten about). Highly undignified for the passenger concerned, and of course I apologised profusely and went and found someone to take them off, not being ramp trained myself.

This is the kind of situation in which complaints are completely merited and are useful because a mistake has been made and there’s a learning point for how to avoid the same scenario occurring.

I’m just not sure the same can be said or the current situation, where we had the rare (but impossible to prevent) situation of a train being terminated short at a location with no lifts in disruption. It’s entirely possible the decision to terminate was made when the train was already platformed at MKC, had passed the point of no return to enable re platforming. Shunts and sending trains beyond an agreed termination point aren’t always easy or quick things to arrange - we also don’t know what the train/crew was doing next, as others have said.
 

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Quite a strange situation to be in. All TM (Avanti) and SCR (LNWR) have access to work phones with apps that update them on things like lifts being out of order. No train crew in their right mind would drop off a wheelchair user to a platform that has no working strep free access.

Also, MKC is LNWR station so if he mentions Avanti, it must've been an Avanti service he was on and the staff on the platform were Avanti dispatchers as LNWR deal with all assists there.

Clearly the correct thing to have done was disembark the passenger at Rugby for onward travel via rail or road.

If this was on the day of the disruption, the lifts we're all working when I was sat there for 2hrs as 2 train loads of passengers boarded from Avanti services that terminated there so I can't quite get my head around how this has transpired in this way given the Avanti dispatchers were actually being very helpful in getting people across from 5&6 to my train on 4.

I’m just not sure the same can be said or the current situation, where we had the rare (but impossible to prevent) situation of a train being terminated short at a location with no lifts in disruption. It’s entirely possible the decision to terminate was made when the train was already platformed at MKC, had passed the point of no return to enable re platforming. Shunts and sending trains beyond an agreed termination point aren’t always easy or quick things to arrange - we also don’t know what the train/crew was doing next, as others have said.
The fire was just before 4pm, I was the 15.55 from Rugby and lines were shut after I departed.
2 Avanti trains cam through after but to de-train at MKC only and head back north. I didn't depart MKC until 18.20 so no trains came to Rugby that didn't know about the issue further down the line
 

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The fire was just before 4pm, I was the 15.55 from Rugby and lines were shut after I departed.
2 Avanti trains cam through after but to de-train at MKC only and head back north. I didn't depart MKC until 18.20 so no trains came to Rugby that didn't know about the issue further down the line

Thanks for this insight. The biggest error was therefore not taking him off at Rugby (with a stop order if necessary) and putting him in a taxi to London.
 

43066

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The fire was just before 4pm, I was the 15.55 from Rugby and lines were shut after I departed.
2 Avanti trains cam through after but to de-train at MKC only and head back north. I didn't depart MKC until 18.20 so no trains came to Rugby that didn't know about the issue further down the line

Thanks.

You can see how this would have happened. Preventing it would have needed someone to consciously marry up the relevant bits of information: wheelchair passenger aboard; we will be terminating at MKC; lifts aren’t working on that particular platform (with it not necessarily being known which which platforms would be used, or if/when the situation would resolve itself).

There problem really is that there isn’t any one person in the process who would readily have all that information before them. Indeed platforming can be and is changed at the drop of a hat right up until arrival.
 

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Thanks.

You can see how this would have happened. Preventing it would have needed someone to consciously marry up the relevant bits of information: wheelchair passenger aboard; we will be terminating at MKC; lifts aren’t working on that particular platform (with it not necessarily being known which which platforms would be used, or if/when the situation would resolve itself).

There problem really is that there isn’t any one person in the process who would readily have all that information before them. Indeed platforming can be and is changed at the drop of a hat right up until arrival.

By definition, isn’t that what the senior person in Control is supposed to do. Oversight the various parts and Co-ordinate any potential problems.

However if there were problems south of Milton Keynes, they were probably very busy, and took their eye off the ball, so didn’t notice the plan to terminate a train with a wheelchair user at a station where lifts weren’t working. It could probably have been avoided if the train guard and/or train manager had used their company phones to send a reminder of wheelchair on board (and if lifts were long term out of order, and on notices, guard should have been aware).
 

43066

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By definition, isn’t that what the senior person in Control is supposed to do. Oversight the various parts and Co-ordinate any potential problems.

I don’t think control would necessarily even know a wheelchair passenger was aboard. It can be arranged at short notice at staffed stations as there’s no requirement to book in advance (albeit people are encouraged to). The signaller certainly wouldn’t know about the presence of a wheelchair and (AIUI) wouldn’t know which lifts were working, when making platforming decisions.

As you say many plates spinning during disruption and lots of competing priorities.
 

Horizon22

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There certainly are situations where the assistance processes fail. As a DOO driver a few times I changed ends in London to find a wheelchair user marooned on the train because the need for assistance hadn’t been communicated by the origin station (or had been communicated but had been misunderstood/forgotten about). Highly undignified for the passenger concerned, and of course I apologised profusely and went and found someone to take them off, not being ramp trained myself.

This is the kind of situation in which complaints are completely merited and are useful because a mistake has been made and there’s a learning point for how to avoid the same scenario occurring.

I’m just not sure the same can be said or the current situation, where we had the rare (but impossible to prevent) situation of a train being terminated short at a location with no lifts in disruption. It’s entirely possible the decision to terminate was made when the train was already platformed at MKC, had passed the point of no return to enable re platforming. Shunts and sending trains beyond an agreed termination point aren’t always easy or quick things to arrange - we also don’t know what the train/crew was doing next, as others have said.

Also - rightly or wrongly - operational control staff won’t know about there being a passenger requiring assistance on board as that isn’t their remit and they’ve got many other tasks to be carrying out. It could have been escalated to them that this issue has occurred but by that point it would have been issue of trying to fix the issue, rather than prevent it. It would be more senior staff who might be able to say phone the fire brigade, or decide on an alternative solution.

By definition, isn’t that what the senior person in Control is supposed to do. Oversight the various parts and Co-ordinate any potential problems.

However if there were problems south of Milton Keynes, they were probably very busy, and took their eye off the ball, so didn’t notice the plan to terminate a train with a wheelchair user at a station where lifts weren’t working. It could probably have been avoided if the train guard and/or train manager had used their company phones to send a reminder of wheelchair on board (and if lifts were long term out of order, and on notices, guard should have been aware).

Senior person in control would not even be aware where any assistance passengers are on any train at any given time of day - unless there was a problem. It simply isn’t their remit and they several other priorities.

More junior members of the team might have been aware but again it’s normally logged and put away, because 99% of assisted travel doesn’t run into issues.

There’s a whole host of information to remember and I wouldn’t begrudge a guard that didn’t remember, especially when the passenger was never intending to be at MKC and they were probably dealing with arranging the terminating short. It’s difficult for us to know when they clocked that this was going to be know this presented a big problem for this particular passenger. Once the issue was found out, I’d definitely have looped in Control though as they’re in a better position to make suitable arrangements.

It does appear the best solution was (with a dollop of hindsight) then to send the passenger to Rugby & alight there. That would have required significant insight & quick thinking from the team at the station as during this sort of disruption in the immediate event things can get hectic and no doubt they had hundreds of passengers to deal with suddenly piling off cancelled trains. And the passenger would have to be agreeable to it; it certainly would have been better for them to do that in hindsight (not to mention dignified), but the lack of firm timeframes (nobody’s fault in a developing incident) might have impacted their decisions.
 

SCDR_WMR

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Thanks.

You can see how this would have happened. Preventing it would have needed someone to consciously marry up the relevant bits of information: wheelchair passenger aboard; we will be terminating at MKC; lifts aren’t working on that particular platform (with it not necessarily being known which which platforms would be used, or if/when the situation would resolve itself).

There problem really is that there isn’t any one person in the process who would readily have all that information before them. Indeed platforming can be and is changed at the drop of a hat right up until arrival.
I would say the TM could have known, probably should have, that the lift was out. Depends if it had just failed. I've never seen a TM use a ramp to be fair so if it was the dispatcher who de-trained the assist then they should equally have know. It's somewhat common on LNWR to have assists for stations when lifts are out so we maybe keep an eye out for that more.

They weren't quick turnarounds either, so there's even a chance they could've put him back on up to Rugby.

Deeply regrettable situation for him to be in, and it should be properly investigated so as to learn from this.
 

Bletchleyite

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I would say the TM could have known, probably should have, that the lift was out. Depends if it had just failed. I've never seen a TM use a ramp to be fair so if it was the dispatcher who de-trained the assist then they should equally have know. It's somewhat common on LNWR to have assists for stations when lifts are out so we maybe keep an eye out for that more.

They weren't quick turnarounds either, so there's even a chance they could've put him back on up to Rugby.

Deeply regrettable situation for him to be in, and it should be properly investigated so as to learn from this.

Also highlights why MKC needs toilets (or at least a disabled one) installing on P5/6. It's the only island without toilets of the three, and going up and back down again may not be within the ability of someone requiring assistance even in normal operations.
 

SCDR_WMR

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Also highlights why MKC needs toilets (or at least a disabled one) installing on P5/6. It's the only island without toilets of the three, and going up and back down again may not be within the ability of someone requiring assistance even in normal operations.
Somehow it's a station which has everything and nothing at the same time! Currently only p3/4 has a men's toilet too.

I do wonder if we have an accessability 'champion' or similar, like we do with equality. For me it's one of the railway's major failures, the experience for a wheelchair user or otherwise impaired falls short of acceptable in my eyes
 

GB

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If true, it offers a frightening insight into the health and safety culture of the UK railways, following policy to the letter without the faintest understanding of the underlying principles.

Nice little sound bite there but what is to understand other than if you don't have the correct training (or physical attributes) you can cause further injury to the person or yourself and you would most likely be held liable for such. Is it good for the customer, of course not, does it look good for the railways, of course not but we are always told if you can't do something right or safely then don't do it.
 

Bletchleyite

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Somehow it's a station which has everything and nothing at the same time! Currently only p3/4 has a men's toilet too.

When did that happen? 1 always had both (ever since opened up to customers; they were staff only for a good while), has the gents' been vandalised to the point of being closed?

The railway could do with employing, rather than fobbing off, someone like Doug Paulley.
 

SCDR_WMR

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When did that happen? 1 always had both (ever since opened up to customers; they were staff only for a good while), has the gents' been vandalised to the point of being closed?

The railway could do with employing, rather than fobbing off, someone like Doug Paulley.
It's been out of action for several weeks now i believe. There are still staff toilets on 1 but that's no use to passengers.
 
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