Fatality at Harpenden 12/09/16

[lightbulb]

I don't know if this the right place to post this. I'm on the 1505 Nottingham to St Pancras (1B56) which has hit a person at Harpenden. The windscreen has been shattered, and we are at a stand on the southern outskirts of HPD. Both fast lines are closed, and both slow lines are open. We are currently awaiting a relief driver from STP.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
We're now reversing to Luton Airport Parkway, where we will be detrained.

 

[J-2739]

Horrendous news. R.I.P to the person killed :cry:

 

[bb21]

Now I have just witnessed an irate woman turning on a Thameslink driver going off-duty due to being out of hours, for following control's orders and daring to take the train into the sidings instead of running it all the way to Bedford.

Thankfully all other passengers on the platform were backing the driver up. That and the general level of understanding attitude shown by our customers during disruptions recently really pleases me that humanity is truly alive and kicking. Silly cow ended up turning on everyone else and storming off in a huff.

Must have thought that she was the centre of the universe there.

 

[J-2739]

Now I have just witnessed an irate woman turning on a Thameslink driver going off-duty due to being out of hours, for following control's orders and daring to take the train into the sidings instead of running it all the way to Bedford.

Thankfully all other passengers on the platform were backing the driver up. That and the general level of understanding attitude shown by our customers during disruptions recently really pleases me that humanity is truly alive and kicking. Silly cow ended up turning on everyone else and storming off in a huff.

Must have thought that she was the centre of the universe there.

Now that's just a new deep (that other woman, not you).

 

[dk1]

Now I have just witnessed an irate woman turning on a Thameslink driver going off-duty due to being out of hours, for following control's orders and daring to take the train into the sidings instead of running it all the way to Bedford.

Thankfully all other passengers on the platform were backing the driver up. That and the general level of understanding attitude shown by our customers during disruptions recently really pleases me that humanity is truly alive and kicking. Silly cow ended up turning on everyone else and storming off in a huff.

Must have thought that she was the centre of the universe there.

Oh how I wish I was that driver. I would've wiped the floor with the vile woman.

 

[lightbulb]

We were on the move at 1845 or so, and reversed back to Luton, where an EMT train was waiting on platform 1. This left at 1900, calling at Luton Airport Parkway at 1903, and arrived at STP at 1938.

The staff on 1B56 were all highly professional, and showed great concern for the driver (he was highly shaken, this being his first experience of such a traumatic incident), and checked that every passenger was okay.

 

[Bald Rick]

We were on the move at 1845 or so, and reversed back to Luton, where an EMT train was waiting on platform 1. This left at 1900, calling at Luton Airport Parkway at 1903, and arrived at STP at 1938.

The staff on 1B56 were all highly professional, and showed great concern for the driver (he was highly shaken, this being his first experience of such a traumatic incident), and checked that every passenger was okay.

Sounds like a particularly bad one.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Oh how I wish I was that driver. I would've wiped the floor with the vile woman.

Same here.

I was delayed by about 30 mins by this incident. Quite a bit of tutting and harrumphing on board; unfortunately there wasn't a single announcement by the driver in the hour I was on the train. I do think a simple announcement explaining the basics of such an incident can remove almost all the 'bad feeling' in the passengers towards (yet another) delay.

Of course it is possible that the driver of my train didn't have the information on what was happening, nor the time to provide it. Unlikely though given that we were stationary several times, and I would be surprised if General Calls weren't going out from the 'box. To show it can be done the driver on my train in the opposite direction this morning gave us two announcements when we were delayed for 5 minutes.

 

[JaJaWa]

...I was delayed by about 30 mins by this incident. Quite a bit of tutting and harrumphing on board; unfortunately there wasn't a single announcement by the driver in the hour I was on the train...

I believe TfL policy is for there to be an announcement within 30 seconds of being stopped, even just to say the train is held at a signal.

 

[Class2ldn]

This isn't anything to do with tfl though.
From all accounts it was a pretty horrendous incident.
As for general calls from the box, unfortunately there was none while I was up that way.
It just doesn't happen much now.

 

[Abpj17]

Now I have just witnessed an irate woman turning on a Thameslink driver going off-duty due to being out of hours, for following control's orders and daring to take the train into the sidings instead of running it all the way to Bedford.

Thankfully all other passengers on the platform were backing the driver up. That and the general level of understanding attitude shown by our customers during disruptions recently really pleases me that humanity is truly alive and kicking. Silly cow ended up turning on everyone else and storming off in a huff.

Must have thought that she was the centre of the universe there.

Thameslink have been having a bad patch - I've a delay repay claim every week for over a month now I think. Trains going out of London this evening were chronic - a sea of cancellations.

As others have said, most customers are sympathetic if they know injury/fatality is involved. But not if they don't know, or the minority who are just jerks.

 

[Bedpan]

Incident was said to have occurred at just after 16.45; I was alerted by the air ambulance hovering very low over Station Road presumably looking for somewhere to land at around 16.54, so full marks to all concerned for getting it to the scene so quickly. I lost sight of it behind the buildings so don't know if it actually landed although my impression was that it didn't, maybe because it was clear by then that their services weren't necessary.

 

[Deepgreen]

The platform indicators at Sutton at 0810 this morning were still showing disruption to Thameslink services owing to an incident at Harpenden. Assuming this was yesterday's sad event, this seems an excessively out-of-date message even for GTR!

 

[bb21]

Thameslink have been having a bad patch - I've a delay repay claim every week for over a month now I think. Trains going out of London this evening were chronic - a sea of cancellations.

As others have said, most customers are sympathetic if they know injury/fatality is involved. But not if they don't know, or the minority who are just jerks.

It was repeatedly announced at the station that it was due to a person hit by a train, yet she still preferred to gob off to those who couldn't really do anything. She kept telling the driver to use his "common sense", although I got the feeling that she was lacking a bit of that herself.

The platform indicators at Sutton at 0810 this morning were still showing disruption to Thameslink services owing to an incident at Harpenden. Assuming this was yesterday's sad event, this seems an excessively out-of-date message even for GTR!

Given the extensive disruption yesterday, it wouldn't surprise me if they still had issues with stock displacement, potentially due to drivers being out of hours and all over the places last night.

 

[tsr]

Given the extensive disruption yesterday, it wouldn't surprise me if they still had issues with stock displacement, potentially due to drivers being out of hours and all over the places last night.

Not just that, but also a signalling problem overnight at Radlett, plus (later) the displacement of stock/drivers due to an overrunning engineering block affecting all trains on the BML South of Three Bridges. Admittedly if the CIS was blaming it all on the Harpenden incident then I suspect it probably could have been worded a bit better!

 

[bb21]

Not getting any better for GTR with another couple of fatalities today.

 

[JDi]

I was doing work experience with my MP, and was returning from St. Pancras on this day. I have searched for information about this incident, as I was unfortunate enough to have caught sight of the front of this train. To this day, I have been unable to get that sight out of my mind. It was horrible.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

There was a report on the inquest in the Herts Advertiser this week - does not make pleasant reading.

 

[455driver]

I was doing work experience with my MP, and was returning from St. Pancras on this day. I have searched for information about this incident, as I was unfortunate enough to have caught sight of the front of this train. To this day, I have been unable to get that sight out of my mind. It was horrible.

Try sitting in the cab when they hit the front of the train, the noise is bad enough but then you get the red mist.

 

[JDi]

Try sitting in the cab when they hit the front of the train, the noise is bad enough but then you get the red mist.

Are you a train driver? I thought you were by seeing some of your posts! Which route do you drive? What is it like being a train driver? I am still quite young, and can remember when I was in primary school, almost most boys in my class had ambitions to become a train driver. I think that was largely due to to the success of the "Thomas the Tank" cartoon then!

 

[GW43125]

Try sitting in the cab when they hit the front of the train, the noise is bad enough but then you get the red mist.

Oh god. That's not a pleasant image.