Odd request to move

[antharro]

So every week, I catch the 1935 Weymouth service from Waterloo. Every week, I stand where the 10th carriage (leading carriage when the train departs) will stop at the end of the platform. Every week, the 5 carriages from Portsmouth arrive, and the 5 carriages from Weymouth arrive and couple up to make up the 1935 service. I usually stand approximately half way down the length of the 10th carriage, so easily 15 feet from the end of the platform. I've done this for probably over a year now, sometimes by myself, sometimes with other regular passengers who like to be in the 10th carriage.

This week, as I stood and waited for the Weymouth half of the train to arrive, I was approached by a member of the station staff who asked me to move behind a lamp post about five feet further up the platform. I looked at him a bit bemused and asked why. First he said it was for safety reasons, to which I pointed out I was well within the yellow lines, a distance from the platform edge and there were no other people around. He said he knew that but could I move anyway to behind the lamp post. He was quite clear that the lamp post was where I should be standing. So I again asked him why, to which he muttered something about "standing there makes the other passengers uncomfortable". I looked down the platform - there were about 4 passengers waiting by the 5th coach of the Portsmouth train. Aside from that, the platform was deserted except for me and the guard.

He then moved to stand by the lamp post and asked me to move there. Still completely bemused, I did.

Someone care to tell me what that was about? There are no signs on that platform (11/12) saying people shouldn't stand in that area, no hatched lines, and where I was standing was approximately half way along where the 10th carriage stops, so I wasn't at the end of the platform.

I snapped a picture of where I was standing, which I'll upload later, still on the train now.

 

[deltic1989]

That is a weird one. I fail to see how you could make other passengers nervous by simply standing at the end of the platform?

 

[Trog]

He may have thought you were going to jump. Try looking really miserable and muttering to yourself when you do it on Monday morning.

 

[martin2345uk]

Maybe one of his colleages said to him "I'll give you a fiver if you can get that bloke to stand behind that lamppost"....

 

[otomous]

I think Trog is probably correct. Railway staff tend to get nervous if they see people behaving unusually. As a driver I've got used to most people standing close to wherever they entered the platform. It's only in the peaks that people tend to spread themselves down the length of the platform. It's unusual to find people at the end of a platform, even when there is a fair bit of room before the end. When you are bringing a train in and you see one person standing near the end away from others you do start to wonder if they are going to jump. Though asking people to move because of this seems a bridge too far...smacks of arresting people in case they commit a crime!

 

[PHILIPE]

Or was he just being a jobsworth

 

[yorkie]

Or was he just being a jobsworth

Not by the definition of jobsworth that I'm familiar with (ie, doing the job precisely to the letter, exactly to the rules, but without showing any discretion. In this case there is no such rule to enforce, so not a jobsworth)

 

[krisk]

Even I'm confused

 

[deltic1989]

Maybe one of his colleages said to him "I'll give you a fiver if you can get that bloke to stand behind that lamppost"....

This sounds like something I would do.

 

[route:oxford]

This week, as I stood and waited for the Weymouth half of the train to arrive, I was approached by a member of the station staff who asked me to move behind a lamp post about five feet further up the platform. I looked at him a bit bemused and asked why. First he said it was for safety reasons, to which I pointed out I was well within the yellow lines, a distance from the platform edge and there were no other people around. He said he knew that but could I move anyway to behind the lamp post. He was quite clear that the lamp post was where I should be standing. So I again asked him why, to which he muttered something about "standing there makes the other passengers uncomfortable". I looked down the platform - there were about 4 passengers waiting by the 5th coach of the Portsmouth train. Aside from that, the platform was deserted except for me and the guard.

He then moved to stand by the lamp post and asked me to move there. Still completely bemused, I did.

Someone care to tell me what that was about? There are no signs on that platform (11/12) saying people shouldn't stand in that area, no hatched lines, and where I was standing was approximately half way along where the 10th carriage stops, so I wasn't at the end of the platform.

I snapped a picture of where I was standing, which I'll upload later, still on the train now.

Someone has raised a concern. If the member of staff doesn't do anything about it, he's totally screwed when the person who raised a concern points the finger at him and says "I warned him that the person was going to jump".

 

[Holly]

Someone has raised a concern. If the member of staff doesn't do anything about it, he's totally screwed when the person who raised a concern points the finger at him and says "I warned him that the person was going to jump".

In which case the appropriate thing would be to approach the victim and say "Please don't jump onto the tracks. It would not be legal and would be a huge mess. The railway appreciates your patronage, and I ask you this because I was requested to."

 

[142094]

If an authorised officer or agent of the railway company asks you to do something, then you have to do it, even if it does sound strange, such as it this case. I've only every seen people moved on a platform when they ahve been standing far too close to the edge, or if they have gone past the 'Do not pass this point' signs.