Not allowed onto platforms without a train ticket

[PhilipW]

So lets get this straight. The only facts that we are aware of is that somebody asked to for the rules to be broken in their favour to allow them to go to the train. The member of staff refused (for whatever reason)

ScotRail's 11th commandment
"Thou shalt not be allowed on the platform to escort your parents onto the train".

If indeed they do have such a rule, it seems to me to be a sorry reflection on British Society today.

As I posted earlier, looking after your parents as they grow older is an inate responsibility of their children. In my case, I didn't have to be asked or told to do it, I just did it. Finding their carriage and seat and helping them board with their luggage, if needed, are part of that responsibility. While many on this thread seem to agree with me, I do remain somewhat mystified as to why some think otherwise.

My parents are no longer around. When my mother used to make her lengthy trips (from Lancaster to Southampton) to see me, I always made sure that someone was there, whether friend or family, to ensure she got on the train and was met at the other end. Sometimes that help was essential due to delays or cancellations, sometimes perhaps not. Looking back I have no regrets. I am glad I was able to help.

 

[bnm]

Train dispatch is a major safety minefield, witness the case in Liverpool. I know first-hand how distracting non- travelling public on a platform can be, especially at an unmanned station. I know how dangerous that "last kiss" through the window can be - here is a scenario for you, let's suppose that the female, potentially drunk, on drugs, in high heels ( sounds familiar - it should) trips whilst walking alongside the train having that last kiss... Should I as a guard have hit an emergency stop as soon as I see her starting to walk and physically remove her, or stand there waiting for her to finish her snog and leave the platform? If I don't do that, I'm facing five years for manslaughter, she's in a pine box (or two). If I do, then the train is delayed, and somebody (maybe you) will miss that six minute connection at Newport and is having to wait for over an hour for your next connection ( moaning about "Bloody trains never on time"). If the goodbye was said at the station barrier, the problem (either delays to the legitimate travellers, or my date with the Coroner/Judge) is avoided.

It was so nearly a well made point, flamingo. You made the point 'especially at unmanned stations.' And then suggest that the 'goodbye is said at the barrier'.

An unmanned station won't have a barrier.

This does however raise the issue about the double standards at play here from the rail industry and the defenders of ScotRail's actions at Dundee. I can help my elderly relatives to the platform at the majority of stations on the network, but at those with a gateline I may be refused and the reasons given are that I'm a security risk, that I might endanger myself, that I might delay a train or be accidentally carried. If that's how I'm perceived at a barriered station then I should also be prevented from going anywhere near a platform at an unbarriered one.

If it is the purpose of gatelines (even a secondary one) to protect people from themselves then all stations should be barriered.

It's nice to read the hypothetical 'what ifs' as well as real life examples leading to 500 delay minutes, but we will never read of the countless occasions when someone helps a relative find and board their train without problem. It's all too easy to become jaded by the relatively few instances that cause a problem.

Those that cause a delay/safety issue are a tiny tiny minority of the public who have been granted access (implied or with a ticket) to a station. Yet their actions apparently mean (at least from the point of view of the rail staff responding to this thread) everyone should be barred from helping their relative.

Let's have one common sense rule for all stations and not use barriers for anything other than revenue protection.

 

[PhilipW]

Those that cause a delay/safety issue are a tiny tiny minority of the public who have been granted access (implied or with a ticket) to a station. Yet their actions apparently mean (at least from the point of view of the rail staff responding to this thread) everyone should be barred from helping their relative.

Let's have one common sense rule for all stations and not use barriers for anything other than revenue protection.

Well said

 

[Goatboy]

Everybody who wants to see somebody off has a good reason. The chap who distracted my colleague last year, resulting in a door open on dispatch and two cancelled trains doesn't even know the chaos he was instrumental in causing.

But your colleague could just as easily have been distracted by a confused passenger asking for timetable information or a drunk passenger throwing abuse after missing a train or somebody wanting directions to the toilet or somebody who needed to know what platform the train to CYZ was or somebody running along the platform causing a hazard or..... etc. Sure, on that particular occasion it was somebody who wasn't travelling but come on..

 

[calc7]

But then, as this report indicates, there's nothing to prevent someone buying the cheapest single ticket, going onto the platform to help the aged relative, and still being on the train when it departs, thereafter pulling the emergency handle and causing all the delays and problems that you've referred to. .

Quite - but you mitigate the risk with a financial obstacle (namely the charge of the cheapest single) thereby pricing out many on the margin opportunists who decide that saying goodbye to Granny at the barrier is perfectly acceptable.

Such small measures could mean a whole raft of incidents like the ones described by Ferret and Flamingo never happen, even if this is only a side-effect of having the barriers in place.

 

[Flamingo]

It was so nearly a well made point, flamingo. You made the point 'especially at unmanned stations.' And then suggest that the 'goodbye is said at the barrier'.

An unmanned station won't have a barrier.

It is a bigger problem at an unmanned station, as
1. There are more people who make it through to the platform and
2. The guard is more likely to be on their own trying to see everything at once.

How about if I change it to "... The station entrance..."?