Disabled passenger locked in at Oxenholme station

[DarloRich]

For this to happen once is a mistake. Twice at the same station is a pattern. Something process wise has completely failed here.

 

[Gloster]

To misquote Lady Bracknell New Town: “to lock people in Oxenholme station once, Mr Avanti, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lock them in twice looks like carelessness; to do it three times looks like a system failure”.

Operator corrected from Arriva: perhaps I just don’t trust any of them!

 

[Clarence Yard]

Locking a station up should be done after a “security” sweep of the station. Obviously somebody at Oxenholme thinks it’s just a lock up and away job at a certain time.

Some station management intervention is required here.

 

[island]

To misquote Lady Bracknell New Town: “to lock people in Oxenholme station once, Mr Arriva, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lock them in twice looks like carelessness; to do it three times looks like a system failure”.

Where does Arriva come into it?

 

[The exile]

Any station which is locked at night should have a way of someone inside the station being able to exit in my opinion. If, rather than padlocking the gate, they fitted a lock with a push pad release bar (from the platform side only) instead, that would immediately and permanently resolve the issue.

Indeed - unless train crew have a key it also renders the station little use for an unplanned evacuation of a train / medical attendance.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Locking a station up should be done after a “security” sweep of the station. Obviously somebody at Oxenholme thinks it’s just a lock up and away job at a certain time.

Some station management intervention is required here.

(As a former Station Manager) Precisely.

 

[800001]

Locking a station up should be done after a “security” sweep of the station. Obviously somebody at Oxenholme thinks it’s just a lock up and away job at a certain time.

Some station management intervention is required here.

Exactly this, starting at the furthest place away that a customer could be, and methodically walk back to the entrance.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Wasn't there a similar incident at Blackburn a few years ago? IIRC one of the trapped people in that instance was an off-duty guard, which presumably helped with dealing with the situation.

WRT the idea of a push release bar for the gate, would such a thing have been operable by a passenger with a disability?

 

[Crossover]

My local station is never locked at night, even when there are lots of diverted freight trains scheduled to run through overnight. And everyday there are ECS workings which run through non stop at night. So clearly isn't a national policy, just a local idea. For reference my local station is in a smallish town, on fringe of a national landscape (formerly AONB) area, so not dissimilar in urban/rural to Oxenholme

A station not far from me (used to be my local), Dewsbury, isn't locked at all (it does have doors) but the lifts are taken out of use when the booking office shuts for the day. That said, I suspect it is also a oublic right of way as well so that may hamper further closure

Any station which is locked at night should have a way of someone inside the station being able to exit in my opinion. If, rather than padlocking the gate, they fitted a lock with a push pad release bar (from the platform side only) instead, that would immediately and permanently resolve the issue.

The difficulty is whether the push pad can be reached from outside, which with many gates it would be, unless they were completely solid. At work, there is a similar issue that a fob is needed to get out of one of the gates, as a push button could be operated from the road.

 

[Mike395]

A station not far from me (used to be my local), Dewsbury, isn't locked at all (it does have doors) but the lifts are taken out of use when the booking office shuts for the day. That said, I suspect it is also a oublic right of way as well so that may hamper further closure


The difficulty is whether the push pad can be reached from outside, which with many gates it would be, unless they were completely solid. At work, there is a similar issue that a fob is needed to get out of one of the gates, as a push button could be operated from the road.

There's (fairly simple) ways of implementing it if the will is there, at a previous work location (a datacentre, so security is key) - there was a well-thought-through design (including metal barriers to stop anyone reaching around) to stop any risk of the perimeter gate leading from the fire escape being open-able from outside.

 

[D1537]

(deleted: I was pointing out there was a later passenger service at OXN, but missed the fact that his train (1S98) was 90 minutes late.)

 

[Crossover]

There's (fairly simple) ways of implementing it if the will is there, at a previous work location (a datacentre, so security is key) - there was a well-thought-through design (including metal barriers to stop anyone reaching around) to stop any risk of the perimeter gate leading from the fire escape being open-able from outside.

I don't disagree. It seems that given the will isn't there to sort the root cause of this situation out, I'm not convinced there would be for well thought out ideas such as this

 

[Recessio]

Simply unacceptable for this to have happened especially more than once at the same station.

 

[jfowkes]

A maglock on the gate and a pushbutton to unlock it from the inside is the obvious way to solve both the "can a mobility impaired person activate it" and the "this should only be accessible by someone inside the station" problems.

 

[Taunton]

He took photos as well, the gate chain and padlock wouldnt take much to remove.
Before he rang the Police he was frantically waving at freight trains to get them to stop. Apparently, when the Police arrived, it still took a while to open the gate.

Then don't call the police, call the fire service. They have bolt cutters on the fire engine.

 

[Horizon22]

Admittedly this isn’t recently, but the last time I used a help point it went through to National Rail Enquiries. I’d have had more luck asking for help from the brick wall.

Funny how it keeps happening at Oxenholme.

Pressing the emergency line should put you through to someone at the TOC rather than a rather useless NRE caller.

Twice at the same station suggests a serious local cultural / management / procedural issue regarding lock-up/closing the station.

 

[Falcon1200]

Surely this situation is different from the previous event in that there were still staff at the station when the delayed train arrived? What seems strange is that the staff on the Down platform would have used the same subway to exit the station as the trapped passenger, yet somehow he was missed - Although Oxenholme is surely not a big, or complex, enough station that this would easily happen.

 

[D1537]

Surely this situation is different from the previous event in that there were still staff at the station when the delayed train arrived? What seems strange is that the staff on the Down platform would have used the same subway to exit the station as the trapped passenger, yet somehow he was missed - Although Oxenholme is surely not a big, or complex, enough station that this would easily happen.

In the previous event there was a communications failure in that the train was not supposed to stop at Oxenholme - it was meant to proceed to Penrith for a coach connection back to Oxenholme - but a communications failure meant that this wasn't communicated to the train crew, and so it did stop. In this case, there appears to be no suggestion that the train was meant to skip the stop.

Which raises the question - did
(a) the staff believe that 1S98 was not stopping there and therefore locked the station
(b) did they simply lock the station up at the usual time regardless of the fact there was a train still to arrive? (The last scheduled train is the 2308 to Preston, which was on time, but 1S98 did not arrive until 2344).
(c) did they wait for 1S98, but the passenger's restricted mobility meant that they missed him and thought everyone had exited the station before they locked up?

 

[island]

Pressing the emergency line should put you through to someone at the TOC rather than a rather useless NRE caller.

Twice at the same station suggests a serious local cultural / management / procedural issue regarding lock-up/closing the station.

The contact points at my local station no longer have an emergency button, only information and assistance.

 

[infobleep]

P3 the starter is on the public platform before the trespass sign and there is an SPT next to it, so could have used that.

If you know it's there and can use it if course.

What is the mobile data reception like there? It's been a while since I last changed trains there.

 

[Horizon22]

The contact points at my local station no longer have an emergency button, only information and assistance.

Oh ok, that’s a poor development. I’d suggest “assistance” is probably the same call routing as “emergency” though.

 

[Bovverboy]

Wasn't there a similar incident at Blackburn a few years ago? IIRC one of the trapped people in that instance was an off-duty guard, which presumably helped with dealing with the situation.

The 'off duty' guard had been the guard on the train which arrived after the station had been locked. As had been scheduled, she alighted with the passengers at the station and the driver continued to the depot DOO.
On that occasion the problem was not late running. On that particular night of the week (I think Saturday) the train in question was the last scheduled arrival, on other nights it would not have been, that is presumably how it had been forgotten about.

 

[Falcon1200]

(c) did they wait for 1S98, but the passenger's restricted mobility meant that they missed him and thought everyone had exited the station before they locked up?

As per the unfortunate passenger's statement in the BBC article linked in Post #1, (a) and (b) did not apply when the train arrived as the station was staffed and therefore open. So presumably (c) applied, no doubt the staff involved will have reported their side of the story, whether that gets made public is another thing!

 

[TUC]

No, they're usually on a timer with not many exceptions. Delayed trains late at night have been risky in terms of station lighting for many years.

A classic example of something that could readily be addressed in today's online world. Replace the timer with a smart switch so that an on-call member of staff simply has to say from home 'Alexa, turn the lights on in xx station'.

 

[Dr Hoo]

A classic example of something that could readily be addressed in today's online world. Replace the timer with a smart switch so that an on-call member of staff simply has to say from home 'Alexa, turn the lights on in xx station'.

Similar things in the same vein. Presumably the Help Points could automatically switch through from ‘India’ or National Rail to the ‘station operator’s’ Control during closed hours. Many locally-based commercial security companies offer a ‘key holder’ service for business premises in case the alarm goes off, etc..

 

[Belperpete]

A classic example of something that could readily be addressed in today's online world. Replace the timer with a smart switch so that an on-call member of staff simply has to say from home 'Alexa, turn the lights on in xx station'.

Just wait until the hackers learn about that!

 

[cool110]

A classic example of something that could readily be addressed in today's online world. Replace the timer with a smart switch so that an on-call member of staff simply has to say from home 'Alexa, turn the lights on in xx station'.

Just wait until the hackers learn about that!

A better idea would be to link them to the PIS, so they stay on until X minutes after the actual departure of the last train.

 

[Belperpete]

A better idea would be to link them to the PIS, so they stay on until X minutes after the actual departure of the last train.

So when the comms link to the PIS fails, do the lights turn permanently on or off?

 

[GoneSouth]

A station not far from me (used to be my local), Dewsbury, isn't locked at all (it does have doors) but the lifts are taken out of use when the booking office shuts for the day. That said, I suspect it is also a oublic right of way as well so that may hamper further closure

Presumably the booking office isn’t open for all train departures, so how are you meant to access the platforms without the lift of you need it? Restricted hours for wheelchair users now? Doesn’t seem right to me.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Presumably the booking office isn’t open for all train departures, so how are you meant to access the platforms without the lift of you need it? Restricted hours for wheelchair users now? Doesn’t seem right to me.

It's not ideal but it's to avoid vandalism which takes the lift out of use for much longer. Though I wonder if other things have been considered e.g. RADAR key access to the lifts?