Drivers communicating with Station Staff

I was on a Tube platform during a serious incident the other day. There were no station staff on the platform, but there were numerous help point calls to bring the incident to the attention of the control room.

Meanwhile, I imagine the train driver was speaking to the signaller to get traction current turned off; however, about three minutes or so into the incident*, the horn/whistle was sounded, as I understand it, to get the attention of station staff. They were presumably already on their way, but hadn't arrived yet.

It seems that that using a horn/whistle blast is a rather suboptimal method to get station staff attention to me? As this was a deep Tube line, was the sound even likely to carry all the way to the top of escalators where presumably the closest staff member was?

I imagine the platform telephones are still present and could also have been used, but the driver was unable to leave his cab due to the nature of the incident. In such a situation, is the horn/whistle the only way for the driver to get the attention of station staff? I imagine the signaller was also trying to communicate with the control room at the time, but it seems like a better solution (admittedly I don't know what) would be useful.

*Subjectively; I imagine it might have been closer to a minute and the stress made it hard to accurately measure time

I assume that the whistle would have been heard at the top of the escalator, as you can sometimes hear a train arrive/depart when on the escalator. I don't know a lot about Tube workings!

-Peter

bcarmicle said:

I imagine the platform telephones are still present and could also have been used, but the driver was unable to leave his cab due to the nature of the incident.

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The driver does not usually need to summon to the station staff if there is an incident although there is an instruction in the rule book to sound the whistle to attract their attention in some instances such as passenger emergency alarm activation.

If there is an incident on the line then the driver speaks to the Controller (not the signaller). If station staff are required to attend then either the Line Information Specialist (for non safety critical messages only) or the Controller will call the station staff and pass on an instruction.

I say usually, because there are cases in the rule book where, if the driver cannot contact the Controller, station staff should be contacted. With the use of Connect radios now, this is extremely unlikely.

If it’s the ‘loud’ whistle then the next station along probably heard it. In a confined area like a underground platform, it is very, very loud.

In an incident it’s habit to blow on the whistle straight away to summon assistance even if you’ve no idea where station staff are (normal). They’re regularly floating about doing various checks so the chances of help quickly arriving are pretty good but your main contact is via the connect radio straight to the controller who’ll also be calling the station to get help to you once he’s received your call.

I would have thought that sounding the whistle is by far the quickest way to get station staff to the scene. Otherwise you've got to pass radio/telephone messages, wait for people to answer phones etc. This all tales time. An immediate blast on the whistle would save several minutes

Sounds like this was a one under (not sure why the nature of the incident was not disclosed in the original post as these are part and parcel of railway operations). If it was then the driver would almost certainly be traumatised and suffering from shock. This is understood, and management of such incidents should reflect the impact on the driver. I understand that sounding the whistle to attract station staff is policy on LU and any station staff on hearing a train whistle will go down to assist. It's certainly far quicker than messing about phoning someone to get them to phone someone who will then radio the station staff. In fact I can't think of a faster means of attracting station staff attention than the whistle.

bionic said:

Sounds like this was a one under (not sure why the nature of the incident was not disclosed in the original post as these are part and parcel of railway operations). If it was then the driver would almost certainly be traumatised and suffering from shock. This is understood, and management of such incidents should reflect the impact on the driver. I understand that sounding the whistle to attract station staff is policy on LU and any station staff on hearing a train whistle will go down to assist. It's certainly far quicker than messing about phoning someone to get them to phone someone who will then radio the station staff. In fact I can't think of a faster means of attracting station staff attention than the whistle.

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At the end of the day it’s worth a go. If no one hears it then staff will be summoned by control staff.

There’s a specific code for calling a fitter - four long whistle blasts. Very rare to hear that nowadays, but some old hands still do it. How many staff would know what it means?!