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London Underground: Man died after falling into gap, RAIB finds

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Dstock7080

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Being typically at line ends, such as South Ferry on the 1 Line (where many visitors encounter them on their way to the Staten Island ferry), when they do fail/jam/have debris fall into them, etc, the service can be suspended one station short, with trains reversing there
South Ferry loop station closed in 2017
 
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Bletchleyite

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Is that specific to underground trains? Pulling the doors open on a class 150 (and presumably all similar BR EMUs) definitely applies the brakes. I've not tried it myself but a load of kids did on a 150 several times and each time it ground to a halt.

I "might" have done it on Merseyrail units as a kid, and it definitely didn't trigger the interlock. You could only open them about 2-3" (not far enough to cause any actual danger) before you hit the resistance from the air pressure - I suspect it was a deliberate feature to ease pulling out anything that was stuck.

They may of course have been modified since then. 150s have been, as built they only had door-power interlock, not door-brake - I have a definite childhood memory of being on one as it moved down the platform (not under power) at Bolton with the doors wide open.
 

dm1

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The Gap Fillers some may have seen on the New York Subway (where platforms like the streets are generally straight but there are some extreme curved ones at eg terminal loops) are a mechanical nightmare, as they, obviously, obstruct the loading gauge when deployed, so they have to be interlocked with the signals as being fully retracted, both for arrival and departure, and are well known for failures. Being typically at line ends, such as South Ferry on the 1 Line (where many visitors encounter them on their way to the Staten Island ferry), when they do fail/jam/have debris fall into them, etc, the service can be suspended one station short, with trains reversing there, which New York, unlike London, has plenty of crossover provision for. I believe the signalling does not now allow a train to depart the preceding station until the one ahead has departed the loop with the gap fillers, to guard against being stopped in the section with the train ahead delayed by a gap filler problem.
Or you use train-based gap fillers, which have been standard on the continent for decades now, and have finally made it to the UK on Stadler trains.

Yes there are still some engineering challenges with this, particularly on tube stock, but they are surmountable. Why the S-Stock was ordered without them defeats me to this day and I strongly believe they should be retrofitted as soon as practical.
 

Bletchleyite

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The Gap Fillers some may have seen on the New York Subway (where platforms like the streets are generally straight but there are some extreme curved ones at eg terminal loops) are a mechanical nightmare, as they, obviously, obstruct the loading gauge when deployed, so they have to be interlocked with the signals as being fully retracted, both for arrival and departure

My observation is that they have rubber "bumpers" and are pushed back by the departing train.
 

100andthirty

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Three points about gap fillers:

1) Those in New York are interlocked with the signals and have little rubber wheels so that the train will push them back slightly until the track circuit that triggers retraction is occupied.
2) The victim at Waterloo wasn't adjacent to a door when he fell in the gap. The usual configuration of gap fillers - whether platform or train borne - wouldn't have helped. Providing gap fillers that protect the entire length of the PTI would be difficult to accommodate.
3) Retrofitting gap fillers to an existing train - especially one as compact as a tube train is unlikely to be feasible.

As for platform plungers, even if they had been provided and they could be made to stop the train (I can't think how with the current signalling), there was no-one around to operate them.
 
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4069

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The RAIB's sister agency the Marine Accident Investigation Branch names victims of fatal accidents in their reports, always with the agreement of the families.
RAIB names those killed in accidents if their families request it.
 

philthetube

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All underground stocks will roll with a door open, operating a passenger alarm on more modern stocks will cause a brake application if in station limits, this is only of more modern stocks and I cannot be specific which these are.
 
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