Disabled passenger locked in at Oxenholme station

[Crossover]

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.

Correct, the ticket office shuts around 7pm and departures finish around midnight or so. One platform (the Huddersfield bound one) has step free access so I think the "solution" is a double back via Leeds or Huddersfield if step free access is required. Not an ideal solution by any means

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?

I don't think a RADAR key would ever be the answer, since so many people have them. It isn't a particularly easy problem to solve, really. Either way, we are getting a bit wayward from the topic

 

[Bletchleyite]

New thread regarding lift access out of hours and possibilities: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/solutions-for-stations-with-part-time-lifts.276315/

 

[KnobbyGB]

Are the lights on station platforms left on all night these days? I remember many years ago late at night getting off a very delayed train at Alfreton and finding the station in complete darkness. This train must have stopped at the station a good hour after the last train was scheduled to call there and the lights were obviously on a time clock and had switched off. After being in the train with its bright lights I still remember how dark it seemed having to walk down the platform and cross the footbridge once the train had left. This was well before the days of mobile phones and so none of the small number of people getting off the train had a torch. Fortunately there was a side gate at Alfreton which was left open all night.

I was on a train recently, somewhere on Chiltern but I don't remember exactly where and we had to skip a scheduled stop because the lights had failed on the platform. I think quite a few people were affected and they had to get off at the next station and travel back. I checked the timetable and they would have waited there about 15 minutes. I bet that was REALLY frustrating, especially as it was only dusk and visibility didn't seem that bad at all.

In your case, it wouldn't have surprised me if the guard had refused to open the doors. Aren't they meant to make a safety check before doing so? Anyway, I bet you were all glad they did!

 

[LowLevel]

I was on a train recently, somewhere on Chiltern but I don't remember exactly where and we had to skip a scheduled stop because the lights had failed on the platform. I think quite a few people were affected and they had to get off at the next station and travel back. I checked the timetable and they would have waited there about 15 minutes. I bet that was REALLY frustrating, especially as it was only dusk and visibility didn't seem that bad at all.

In your case, it wouldn't have surprised me if the guard had refused to open the doors. Aren't they meant to make a safety check before doing so? Anyway, I bet you were all glad they did!

Chiltern having driver only dispatch will have tighter rules on station lighting than guarded trains, generally speaking. Where I am it is most unusual to make any changes to train operations due to lighting issues.

 

[43066]

Chiltern having driver only dispatch will have tighter rules on station lighting than guarded trains, generally speaking. Where I am it is most unusual to make any changes to train operations due to lighting issues.

Indeed. A fairly standard fall back in DOO land for stations to be skipped entirely due to low/failed lighting due to a localised power cut or similar.

 

[Kumquat]

A few years ago, my husband got locked in at Streatham (south London). He'd caught the last southbound train, arriving around 00:30, then got a phone call when he was still on the platform. Maybe 15 minutes later he came upstairs to the ticket hall to find the doors locked. After failing to get through on a Help Point or find a number for Southern, he apologetically called 999. They were very nice and confirmed someone with a key would be sent - but it was over an hour in the cold before he was rescued.

Streatham station definitely needs to be locked up when not in use, but stations really should have functional ways to contact staff in an emergency.

 

[Dr Hoo]

With reports from both Oxenholme and Streatham that the Help Points were functionally ‘dead’ is there actually a systems issue that somehow turns them off when staff go home or lock up?