Metro: Commuters furious after train driver misses scheduled stop at station

[Fincra5]

I think they were probably more cheesed off when we were 50 late last night

 

[SPADTrap]

Is missing a scheduled stop really a "minor error"? Why wasn't the driver paying attention?

Not sure how anyone can answer that.....

 

[Dieseldriver]

Answer, the same reason some of us can be unfortunate to have a SPAD, stop short, TPWS activation, station overrun, fail to spot a wrong route etc etc. We are not robots, we are human beings and, as such, we are more than capable of cocking up. 99.99% of the time we stop the correct side of the red signal, stop as normal at booked stations, stop our formation of train at the correct stop car mark. However, there are plenty of things that can cause distractions to us and unfortunately, due to the nature of our role, any slight error can at worst cause a disaster and at best, cause inconvenience to many people (and plenty of other scenarios in between). What people seem to be unaware of is when a train driver makes a mistake we are put under intense scrutiny, it is investigated and we are monitored/put on action plans with the incident placed on our records for all to see (potentially restricting if you go for a job with a different TOC/FOC).
A point I'd like to make at this point, as a qualified train driver, the incident I would rather have on my file is a fail to call (if I had to pick one). There is no risk to safety and it just creates inconvenience.

 

[Greenback]

I'm slightly miffed about being held up at the till at Lidl's for a total of ten minutes on two separate but consecutive occasions. Unfortunately, the Metro doesn't seem interested in my story. I don't even mind if they say I and the others involved who were also int he queue were furious, but still no sign of them running it.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Mistakes happen. Southern don't normally stop at Preston Park, easy done, Southern do a Delay Repay plus bung a bit for good luck, everyone's alright really. Unless you get a zealous RPI who PFs them all

I've misread a timetable before, I've missed a work email before. Bof.

 

[greatkingrat]

I was once on an FCC train that didn't stop at New Southgate. On arrival at Oakleigh Park, some people went up to the drivers cab to remonstrate with him personally. Everyone else just went straight over the bridge where a southbound train was just pulling in.

It amused me that the people kicking up the biggest fuss ended up missing the SB train, while everyone else had a minimal delay.

 

[455driver]

Is missing a scheduled stop really a "minor error"? Why wasn't the driver paying attention?

Reading the paper, playing on the PSP, talking on the phone, texting, having some female 'company', having a nap, plus about 20 other things!
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I think they were probably more cheesed off when we were 50 late last night

We REALLY need a like button on here!
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Not sure how anyone can answer that.....

I have given it a go!
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real people have offspring to retrieve from child minders, elderly folk to visit in hospital, evening committee meetings etc. And aside from that, after a day at work, a further twenty minutes wasted is unwelcome.

real people will also have mobile phones so would be able to contact these people and explain the situation to them!

See the later post where they were 50 late, what would happen in that situation which is different from this one?

 

[BritishRail83]

About 15 years ago i used to get a train from Woolwich Arsenal to Slade Green (465 and a 466 six cars) in the mornings Monday to Friday around 08:20, it called at Abbey Wood then Slade Green then Dartford. one morning it shot through Slade Green at line speed and i had to travel back one stop from Dartford, no problem i was still alright for work, no issue. things happen.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I'm slightly miffed about being held up at the till at Lidl's for a total of ten minutes on two separate but consecutive occasions. Unfortunately, the Metro doesn't seem interested in my story. I don't even mind if they say I and the others involved who were also int he queue were furious, but still no sign of them running it.

I had a similar problem at Tesco's in Covent Garden last week, which resulted in my having to run to get my train from Charing Cross. Maybe I should have contacted the Metro, it sounds like they might have been interested in that awful scandal. After all, running is potentially quite dangerous. I could've bumped into someone or got run over, or slipped on the pavement had a heart attack or anything could've happened. All because Tesco's made me wait....

 

[edwin_m]

Wonder what they'll print when a copy of Metro gets jammed in the points and stops the job for an hour.

 

[ThePannier]

I have this happen frequently to me when travelling by bus. As much a bus enthusiast as a train enthusiast, I tend to spend my Saturdays riding around the north east on them. However, sometimes there is a driver who is just too ignorant to want to stop, running late so they try to block it out, or they are just in a world of their own! Fact is, it does happen and it's life.

However, I fail to get my head around how this can happen with a train! I mean, with a bus it can be stop-start and stop-start, but with a train you can get long gaps between stations and short gaps between stations. Once more, you would think if were driving a train at a fast speed, with dozens of passengers onboard, you wouldn't drift into a daydream - it's a lack of concentration, in my opinion!

 

[ANorthernGuard]

With the amount of different stopping patterns around nowadays its not that hard to have a failure to call. Just for an example up here in Northern Land we have 1 service to hadfield that stops at Fairfield, just the one or the stoppers from New Mills that miss out Belle Vue but stop at Ryder Brow or even the Rose Hills that miss out Hyde North. Different stopping patterns can cause problems thats why myself and the driver always check our stopping patterns, just to be on the safe side.

 

[thelongestroad]

Metro will print negative stories about the railways because they make popular stories for the readers who (probably) hate their jobs and their daily train ride. This all translates into Metro's advertising revenue at the end of the day... I think.

Wonder what they'll print when a copy of Metro gets jammed in the points and stops the job for an hour.

The Metro also makes an excellent cleaning device for the coupler.

 

[Tom B]

Annoying for the passengers involved but as said above they'll get a refund plus perhaps a bit extra thrown in for good measure. Nobody's perfect. It would be concerning if the same driver did it every week, or different drivers constantly missed a stop - but presumably then the company would take steps to remind everyone. I doubt the driver will make that mistake again soon!

 

[Merseysider]

I have this happen frequently to me when travelling by bus. As much a bus enthusiast as a train enthusiast, I tend to spend my Saturdays riding around the north east on them. However, sometimes there is a driver who is just too ignorant to want to stop, running late so they try to block it out, or they are just in a world of their own! Fact is, it does happen and it's life.

However, I fail to get my head around how this can happen with a train! I mean, with a bus it can be stop-start and stop-start, but with a train you can get long gaps between stations and short gaps between stations. Once more, you would think if were driving a train at a fast speed, with dozens of passengers onboard, you wouldn't drift into a daydream - it's a lack of concentration, in my opinion!

Unless they're flying through red signals at 125mph with the driver staring vacantly out of the window, I hardly think "daydream" is a fair way to describe it.

Driver has sheet. Driver looks at sheet. Driver given alternative stopping pattern. Driver forgets a station that was on sheet.

On the other hand, bus drivers have no excuse! Unless it's pitch black outside, it's pretty easy to see the next stop.
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The Metro also makes an excellent cleaning device for the coupler.

Being free, it's also cheaper than toilet paper!

 

[SPADTrap]

However, I fail to get my head around how this can happen with a train!

You will fail to get your head around it as you're not a driver and haven't experienced it to understand it.

Once more, you would think if were driving a train at a fast speed, with dozens of passengers onboard, you wouldn't drift into a daydream - it's a lack of concentration, in my opinion!

Again, you wouldn't think any different as you haven't done it. It is a mistake/lapse in concentration as to the stopping pattern of that job but you wouldn't understand why and that's not to sound arrogant or anything but unless you've done the job then why would you understand it?

What is that opinion founded upon, can I ask?

 

[3141]

When driving on a motorway on a daily journey I've sometimes arrived at my exit and thought "I don't remember passing some earlier junction this morning!" I think the state I was in could be called a "daydream" and I'm sure train drivers can get into a similar position, when they are doing the same journey day after day, and often two, three or more times on the same day.

Probably reality cuts in if there's a red signal ahead, as I hope it would with me if other traffic made it necessary to take some action.

The media are always going on about "fury", "rage" and so on. It makes a story. Probably most passengers weren't furious, but some will have been very annoyed, particularly if the consequences of missing out a station are serious and cause considerable inconvenience. Being able to tell people by phone is useful, but may not reduce the inconvenience by much.

 

[DelayRepay]

A few days ago on the M1, I forgot to turn off at Junction 14 for Milton Keynes. Maybe because the three previous days I had been heading further north to Leicester.

This morning I got in the lift at work and pressed for floor 4. It was only when I got to floor 4 that I realised I should have gone to floor 3 (my desk in my usual building is on 4 but I was somewhere else today).

Everyone's done things like this. It's not dangerous and doesn't cause a problem except for some inconvenience. For which both the driver and TOC have apologised.

 

[MichaelAMW]

I have this happen frequently to me when travelling by bus. As much a bus enthusiast as a train enthusiast, I tend to spend my Saturdays riding around the north east on them. However, sometimes there is a driver who is just too ignorant to want to stop, running late so they try to block it out, or they are just in a world of their own! Fact is, it does happen and it's life.

However, I fail to get my head around how this can happen with a train! I mean, with a bus it can be stop-start and stop-start, but with a train you can get long gaps between stations and short gaps between stations. Once more, you would think if were driving a train at a fast speed, with dozens of passengers onboard, you wouldn't drift into a daydream - it's a lack of concentration, in my opinion!

There are broadly two different "explanations" for this incident at Preston Park:

-- As you suggest, inattention in general terms to the job at hand
-- A mistake about which stations need to be called at

The second is human error, for reasons others have outlined. The first, were it true, would suggest that a variety of other incidents would occur just as often, such as SPADs, over speeding at speed limits, taking wrong routes, pulling up at the wrong place at a station etc. However, station overruns are, by something appproaching a country mile, way ahead in frequency of all the other types of incident. So, it's not lack of concentration - well, it's not lack of concentration on the safety elements of driving, although I suppose it could be lack of concentration on where the stops are. It's a mistake, one that shouldn't be made, but not one that has major safety implications. It is likely that the driver didn't think s/he was stopping at Preston Park, rather than sailing through, oblivious one way or another to the presence of that station.

 

[Jnismith]

It's newsworthy simply because it is, as you say, extremely rare.

It can't be that rare. It's happened to me twice. Once at Effingham Junction and once at Harpenden

 

[Deerfold]

It can't be that rare. It's happened to me twice. Once at Effingham Junction and once at Harpenden

And in nearly 30 years of catching trains regularly it's never happened to me. Perhaps you've been unlucky?

 

[Merseysider]

And in nearly 30 years of catching trains regularly it's never happened to me. Perhaps you've been unlucky?

In my ten years of getting the train, I haven't witnessed it either. Not even at Capenhurst.

 

[455driver]

Wonder what they'll print when a copy of Metro gets jammed in the points and stops the job for an hour.

I cant wait for the headline about no trains running on Xmas or Boxing days, funnily enough I couldnt get a Metro anywhere, but then its okay for them to have a week off over Xmas and New Year isnt it!

 

[bb21]

Being free, it's also cheaper than toilet paper!

You use that in place of toilet paper?! hock:

You must have some rough skin.

I cant wait for the headline about no trains running on Xmas or Boxing days, funnily enough I couldnt get a Metro anywhere, but then its okay for them to have a week off over Xmas and New Year isnt it!

They probably print them. They just don't have any driver to distribute them.

Let's be honest. Who would want their Christmas ruined by the hysterical headlines printed by that lot?

 

[455driver]

However, I fail to get my head around how this can happen with a train! I mean, with a bus it can be stop-start and stop-start, but with a train you can get long gaps between stations and short gaps between stations. Once more, you would think if were driving a train at a fast speed, with dozens of passengers onboard, you wouldn't drift into a daydream - it's a lack of concentration, in my opinion!

Or maybe the driver was watching where they were going and watching the speedo etc! :roll:
Funnily enough when the train is doing 90mph looking at a schedule card is quite low on my list of priorities!
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Let's be honest. Who would want their Christmas ruined by the hysterical headlines printed by that lot?

After watching the 10th Xmas movie on 'that' day, even the Metro would offer some light relief!

 

[Juniper Driver]

I cant wait for the headline about no trains running on Xmas or Boxing days, funnily enough I couldnt get a Metro anywhere, but then its okay for them to have a week off over Xmas and New Year isnt it!

The Metro is crap anyway.I wouldn't miss it.

 

[Merseysider]

Let's be honest. Who would want their Christmas ruined by the hysterical headlines printed by that lot?

Not me! How long until the periodical "Furious commuters hit in new fares increase" headline?

 

[Greenback]

How about some more headlines for the Metro to use:

'Furious football fans left stranded by no trains on Boxing Day'
'Nightclubbers rage at lack of night trains'
'Churchgoers maddened by no Sunday morning rail services'

and, just for me

'Welshman furious at Lidl delay'

 

[muz379]

However, I fail to get my head around how this can happen with a train! I mean, with a bus it can be stop-start and stop-start, but with a train you can get long gaps between stations and short gaps between stations. Once more, you would think if were driving a train at a fast speed, with dozens of passengers onboard, you wouldn't drift into a daydream - it's a lack of concentration, in my opinion!

Just because there are large gaps between stations doesnt mean the driver is sat up front reading the paper like the passengers behind him . There might be signals to look out for and react to , there might be speed restrictions coming up that s/he has to prepare for .There might be a junction with multiple routes that could be taken that s/he has to check his route is set correctly for .

The guard might have been speaking to the driver on the cab to cab radio about something to do with the train.

If you drive down the same route day in day out but with separate stopping patterns it is easy enough to miss one . Then there are the cases when the schedule card is wrong . I have been in a situation where I as the guard had a different pattern to the driver working the same train .

 

[sarahj]

Every one of those G Express extensions to Brighton has a different stopping pattern and since each driver normally works a different shift each day. Sometimes, mistakes do happen.


Many moons ago (the mid eighties) I was on a train along the Tyne Valley when the driver missed a stop, Corbridge IIRC. So he anchored up. Slapped into reverse and we went back. I think something like that these days would result in a lot more than tea with no biscuits.