Two last week and one this weekIs that now 4 or 5 between MKC and EUS in less than a fortnight?
Two last week and one this weekIs that now 4 or 5 between MKC and EUS in less than a fortnight?
There has been another one under near Taunton now :/, as the first commenter said, this is becoming depressingly familiar now, Thoughts to all involved in both these terrible instances tonight.
The south WCML has had fast-line fences/gates fitted...this has just meant the issue has moved elsewhere. We'll only get anywhere near solving the actual issue if we seriously look at how mental health services are done in the UK.
Nail on head. The gates and spikes will only move it elsewhere. Mental Health is changing but it needs a sea change in this country's attitudes to change it. Do you remember the criticism on here for VT having a mental health charity name and some clown on here said it was Branson jumping on the bandwagon. That's what we're up against to change MH.
I've always been dubious about fencing on platforms stopping suicides although they do have other safety benefits.
The trouble is mental health issues are complex and even professionals can struggle to understand them, no simple solution as far as I can see.
What do you think the BBC should be reporting. They have very strict guidelines about reporting suicides which have been drawn up in consultation with the Samaritans. One of those guidelines warns against reporting details which might encourage vulnerable people to copy the act. https://www.samaritans.org/sites/default/files/kcfinder/files/Samaritans Media Guidelines UK Apr17_Final web(1).pdfI was delayed on Sunday attempting to leave Euston for Preston on the cancelled 1528 due to a fatality . Never mind what MPs may or may not have done ,or the Paradise Papers, these fatalities on the railways are far more important for the families , the drivers of the trains involved and the people using the railways. Yet nothing about it on BBC news or in national news media ??
The south WCML has had fast-line fences/gates fitted...this has just meant the issue has moved elsewhere. We'll only get anywhere near solving the actual issue if we seriously look at how mental health services are done in the UK.
OK Thanks for the info ; I was not aware of any guidelines. Only had a quick look at the document you give, very interesting. Sorry if I offended anyone .What do you think the BBC should be reporting. They have very strict guidelines about reporting suicides which have been drawn up in consultation with the Samaritans. One of those guidelines warns against reporting details which might encourage vulnerable people to copy the act. https://www.samaritans.org/sites/default/files/kcfinder/files/Samaritans Media Guidelines UK Apr17_Final web(1).pdf
Don’t think anyone is offended. Just thought it useful to know that the media does take a cautious approach for very good reasons.OK Thanks for the info ; I was not aware of any guidelines. Only had a quick look at the document you give, very interesting. Sorry if I offended anyone .
I was delayed on Sunday attempting to leave Euston for Preston on the cancelled 1528 due to a fatality . Never mind what MPs may or may not have done ,or the Paradise Papers, these fatalities on the railways are far more important for the families , the drivers of the trains involved and the people using the railways. Yet nothing about it on BBC news or in national news media ??
Two last week and one this week
I've always been dubious about fencing on platforms stopping suicides although they do have other safety benefits.
The trouble is mental health issues are complex and even professionals can struggle to understand them, no simple solution as far as I can see.
I’m pretty sure that on a fair number of occasions friends/family/work colleagues etc will recognise those concerned aren’t their normal selves but probably aren’t aware of how unwell they’ve recently become and/or feel ill equipped to actually do anything useful for them in that situation.Indeed so. Often nobody even has a clue there is a problem.
This seems depressingly familiar now.
I was delayed on Sunday attempting to leave Euston for Preston on the cancelled 1528 due to a fatality . Never mind what MPs may or may not have done ,or the Paradise Papers, these fatalities on the railways are far more important for the families , the drivers of the trains involved and the people using the railways. Yet nothing about it on BBC news or in national news media ??
London Midland put their usual proactive customer service for Trent Valley passengers into practice this evening. The 16:46 from Euston to Crewe was terminated at Rugby and the 17:46 was cancelled throughout. This was to be expected in the circumstances. But then the 18:49 was terminated at Northampton, while the 19:46 was started at Rugby (on time - three minutes after the 18:49 arrived at Northampton, so no chance of passengers on the 18:49 boarding the 19:46 at Rugby) and the 20:46 (the final service) was cancelled throughout. In other words, the final London Midland service today for passengers travelling from Euston to Nuneaton, Atherstone, Tamworth, Lichfield, Rugeley, Stone, Stoke, Kidsgrove or Alsager was the 15:46! There is no excuse for that.
London Midland also cancelled the final train in the opposite direction (the 20:10 Crewe to Northampton) for good measure.
Occasionally London Midland arranges buses, but who would want to wait at an unstaffed station such as Atherstone late at night for a bus that might never turn up?
London Midland put their usual proactive customer service for Trent Valley passengers into practice this evening. The 16:46 from Euston to Crewe was terminated at Rugby and the 17:46 was cancelled throughout. This was to be expected in the circumstances. But then the 18:49 was terminated at Northampton, while the 19:46 was started at Rugby (on time - three minutes after the 18:49 arrived at Northampton, so no chance of passengers on the 18:49 boarding the 19:46 at Rugby) and the 20:46 (the final service) was cancelled throughout. In other words, the final London Midland service today for passengers travelling from Euston to Nuneaton, Atherstone, Tamworth, Lichfield, Rugeley, Stone, Stoke, Kidsgrove or Alsager was the 15:46! There is no excuse for that.
London Midland also cancelled the final train in the opposite direction (the 20:10 Crewe to Northampton) for good measure.
Occasionally London Midland arranges buses, but who would want to wait at an unstaffed station such as Atherstone late at night for a bus that might never turn up?
Oh look. More LM bashing. Quelle surprise. Never a word of criticism for Virgin.
Were you caught up in this? I was so I can only assume you are unaware of the work LM and NR staff had to put in at Bletchley last night and those that stayed well beyond their shift times to help passengers and deal with the aftermath.
Road transport was ordered for several runs on LM: Northampton - Wellingbrough, MK-Luton Airport, Tring - MK, Northampton - Rugby & Fenny Stratford - Bedford. That was done at 1700 on a weekday in about as quick a time as I have seen it.
Ticket acceptance was in place with: EMT, Thamelsink, Chitlern, LO, VT, Southern and on the underground
Whilst not ideal, clearly, what more could be done with many of the trains to run these services stuck out of place with crews all over the place?
Some tweets last night on the situation were absolutely nauseating. I had quoted on here but I can't bring myself to post it it's that bad.
I know non railway people may not understand what exactly the situation is and what exactly goes on, it is incredible to see the amount of abuse LM received on Twitter last night. You have to feel for the people that receive this and can't do anything about it.
I agree, some of the tweets to both VT and LM last night were horrific given the circumstances. Its astounding that people can be so insensitive an self-centered when things like this happen.
I think there needs to be more attention given to ensuring the infrequent services operate, personally. The Crewes seem to suffer badly from any disruption, when dropping a Tring stopper (or even all of them per the 2-track emergency timetable) is just likely to cause minor hassle.
It's not dissimilar to the grindingly unreliable WLL service which is cancelled every time someone looks at it, though as that's also grindingly slow going via London has no massive time penalty.
The LM policy in disruption of "let's just get everything out of Euston as well as we can to clear the commuters even if it's late" has a lot of strengths (it's very rare for LM to miss stops to catch up unlike many other TOCs, say, and that avoids confusion and frustration) but it doesn't work for the Crewes, for which I think there really needs to be a specific recovery plan.
IOW, you can lose 2tph out of the south WCML service without more than a little overcrowding and frustration, but a plan really is needed to ensure a Trent Valley train is near-never cancelled, even if they start diverting to and turning things at Northampton which works well to help things recover.
The reality is the Crewe trains are less busy and carry fewer people. That's not so they're not important to people who use them, but it does rather set the scene that when problems occur they will inevitably be the first ones to be sacrificed.
With ticket easements in place, people travelling to Stafford, Stoke or Crewe were catered for by Virgin - and probably got a quicker journey than they would have had with LM.
Last night, given where the problem occurred, dropping the Tring stoppers would probably have been the worst possible thing to do - those at least meant people travelling to Watford, Hemel and Berkhamsted got out of Euston. OK, little consolation if you were trying to get to MK or points north, but still far better in the overall scheme of things.
And the '2 track' timetable is, of course, planned for either whole days or clear parts of a day - so driver's rosters and unit rosters are planned accordingly as will ECS moves and I assume freight diverted elsewhere. Whereas what happened yesterday was an unplanned incident in the middle of the day - you can't just magic the freight trains away that are running - whereas with a planned capacity restriction you plan for them not to be there at all.
Personally I see it in terms of relative inconvenience. They are busy trains, only 4-car (a few 8) but often full and standing.
Not really a valid comparison.But to use an example elsewhere...it'd be better to lose several Manchester suburban DMU services which are typically more frequent than one Hope Valley stopper.
I didn't. Nor did LM - as was pointed out they did run at least one TV stopper which was started from Rugby.Don't forget people making non-London journeys.
It was figurative. The point is that even if you lop them entirely nobody is going to be several hours late getting home.
The 2-track timetable is frequently implemented in the case of an emergency that loses them 2 tracks for any significant distance south of MKC.
Oh look. More LM bashing. Quelle surprise. Never a word of criticism for Virgin.
Were you caught up in this? I was so I can only assume you are unaware of the work LM, BTP and NR staff had to put in at Bletchley last night and those that stayed well beyond their shift times to help passengers and deal with the aftermath.
Road transport was ordered for several runs on LM: Northampton - Wellingbrough, MK-Luton Airport, Tring - MK, Northampton - Rugby & Fenny Stratford - Bedford. That was done at 1700 on a weekday in about as quick a time as I have seen it.
Ticket acceptance was in place with: EMT, Thamelsink, Chitlern, LO, VT, Southern and on the underground
Whilst not ideal, clearly, what more could be done with many of the trains to run these services stuck out of place with crews all over the place?