As I say, any idiot can be a critic after the event and suddenly everyone is an expert on what should have happened. It's very different dealing with events as they unfold at the time though.
Indeed!
As I say, any idiot can be a critic after the event and suddenly everyone is an expert on what should have happened. It's very different dealing with events as they unfold at the time though.
Thanks for your comment, I realise that there might be far too many problems with such a course of action including those that you have stated...in fact, I was very surprised that they did this transfer in Ireland, and wondered at the time whether it was peculiar to Ireland and if it would even be considered in the UK.
Should we bring in more staff on a Sunday to help stop this kind of thing taking quite so long?
I'm all for having lots of staff being employed but even I would say no to that with no hesitation.
This isn't a regular occurrence by any stretch of the imagination. And there are managers on call for these kind of instances but paying staff to sit about I case there is a major incident is not a sensible idea really.
I think A driver's earlier long post says it all doesn't it ? Its called reality which isn't perfect unfortunately.
FGW have apologised and will compensate those affected. If you were stuck on a motorway in your car you wouldnt get anything .
And there are managers on call for these kind of instances
True. But as you'll see from the video clip linked to from the Daily Mail article; even FGW staff were questioning the decision making and the inaccurate information being given to passengers whilst the incident was still ongoing.As I say, any idiot can be a critic after the event and suddenly everyone is an expert on what should have happened. It's very different dealing with events as they unfold at the time though.
True. But as you'll see from the video clip linked to from the Daily Mail article; even FGW staff were questioning the decision making and the inaccurate information being given to passengers whilst the incident was still ongoing.
So what then, we all shrug and don't comment?
So you think he was lying?Well he was hardly likely to stand up infront of all those angry punters and tell them to sit down and shut up and that FGW were doing a great job was he?! If he didn't sympathise and agree then he would have been lynched!
Well he was hardly likely to stand up infront of all those angry punters and tell them to sit down and shut up and that FGW were doing a great job was he?! If he didn't sympathise and agree then he would have been lynched!
I'm all for having lots of staff being employed but even I would say no to that with no hesitation.
This isn't a regular occurrence by any stretch of the imagination. And there are managers on call for these kind of instances but paying staff to sit about I case there is a major incident is not a sensible idea really.
First Great Western's spokesman on Westcountry News has just said on TV that it was incompetence by the on duty staff for such an incident to take so long and cause such a delay. For future reference for revisiting on on-demand TV it appeared at approx 1804 on ITV Westcountry News.
Here's a link to the report.First Great Western's spokesman on Westcountry News has just said on TV that it was incompetence by the on duty staff for such an incident to take so long and cause such a delay. For future reference for revisiting on on-demand TV it appeared at approx 1804 on ITV Westcountry News.
Saw that, I think that those who worked bloody hard on that incident will be livid. don't know how they can have got to the bottom of what went wrong so quickly (in fact I know that they won't have)
Indeed. I'm sure the TM and the off-duty staff member on the video on the DM website are feeling really valued by their employer at this moment in time. Next time may as well sit there and play cards, obviously running around trying your best isn't good enough. Mistakes were obviously made. But I don't think that the mistakes were made by the folks on the ground and on the train.
FGW need to learn what went wrong and learn from that. They don't need to start knee-jerking
Absolutely. I'm all for accountability, learning lessons and all that, but comments like this from that PR man reek of snap judgments made to make good PR, as people elsewhere are demanding blood. What better way to provide what people want than to scapegoat those on the ground before doing a proper investigation.
So you think he was lying?
First Great Western's spokesman on Westcountry News has just said on TV that it was incompetence by the on duty staff for such an incident to take so long and cause such a delay. For future reference for revisiting on on-demand TV it appeared at approx 1804 on ITV Westcountry News.
It was a question, not a 'wild accusation'. Have a look at it again:Dont be so silly, can you not have a sensible discussion without jumping to these wild accusations?!
But as you'll see from the video clip linked to from the Daily Mail article; even FGW staff were questioning the decision making and the inaccurate information being given to passengers whilst the incident was still ongoing.
Well he was hardly likely to stand up infront of all those angry punters and tell them to sit down and shut up and that FGW were doing a great job was he?! If he didn't sympathise and agree then he would have been lynched!
So you think he was lying?
You wrote that he only said what he did order to placate the passengers. The implication being that he didn't actually mean what he said. If you didn't mean that, perhaps you'd care to explain what you did mean by your comment.Show me where I said he was 'lying' and ill continue to discuss this with you.
It's been done in the UK before - about six months ago a friend of mine was on a Voyager from Birmingham to Edinburgh that was evacuated to a Pendo on the other line after the Voyager failed about 3 miles south of Lancaster. There's more detail in my post on the other thread, which I won't repeat here. But note that both the two Virgin trains and the Irish trains will have had sliding power-doors - I'm not sure there'd be the clearance to open one HST door when the trains are right next to each other, let alone two.
I have to agree with A-driver that making decisions at the time is much more difficult than looking back in hindsight. That doesn't mean we can't learn for the future, though. Maybe part of the problem was that the incident happened on a Sunday, where there's not as many staff around? Should we bring in more staff on a Sunday to help stop this kind of thing taking quite so long?
It was a question, not a 'wild accusation'. Have a look at it again:
You wrote that he only said what he did order to placate the passengers. The implication being that he didn't actually mean what he said. If you didn't mean that, perhaps you'd care to explain what you did mean by your comment.
I don't think that the word incompetence was used, not sure where you got that from
Not exactly "incompetence"
Nobody has explicitly pointed this out yet:
Keeping the passengers on the train presented no risks to safety.
Evacuating the passengers would have presented some risk to safety.
Safety comes first on the railway.
Whilst keeping the passengers on the train remains safe, how can anyone justify an evacuation?
A Driver/Transmarche
Shall we suggest a Hansard approach to this problem.
A Driver merely misspoke himself a that moment. He, of course, meant to say the person from FGW was merely being economical with the truth whilst Transmarche, after a tiring and emotional debate suffered a slight aural distraction at an inopportune moment