What can you excpect over a lifetime of travel?

[Roylang]

Over the past few weeks I have posted a number of my personal experiences where things have not gone quite right with regards to rail travel. It set me thinking whether it just looks like I am posting replies that aren’t true as I have experienced several bad issues myself. That, in turn, set me thinking about my experience over the years.

I have been travelling on British Rail and its successors regularly for over thirty years now. In that time I have seen the good and bad many times. I have been on a train that hit somebody (a suicide) and on another that killed somebody who fell between the train and the platform. I have been on a train that hit the buffers (at low speed) and watched a DMU at Reading run through the buffers at the London end of platforms 8 and 10 (not sure if they are still numbered as I recall them).

I have met guards that did not know the rules and how to apply them, met guards that didn't care and those that went out of their way to help. I have argued with some when they have treated me badly and assisted some when I have highlighted fare dodgers to them. I have seen people treat rail staff in a disgusting manner, seen trespass, seen vandals at work and got shot with an air rifle at Allerton station.

I have been on several trains that have broken down and been on a Railtour that got stuck at a junction for hours when the signalman didn't arrive for work. I have been delayed for hours on Eurostar and at one point got stranded in Belgium for days.

Overall, I am generally left remembering when things failed to live up to the expected level more often than when they exceeded it. I guess that is just human nature. However, are my experiences normal or have I just been unlucky at times?

So, what can a typical regular rail traveller expect to experience over their lifetime?

Roy

 

[blackfive460]

Would you like to consider posting your future travel plans so that we all know what to avoid?
Seriously though, most of what you've experienced isn't all that uncommon and, while I've never been shot, I was once on a train that was reversing onto vans in a bay platfom and hit them at sufficient speed to throw me across a compartment. Such was the force that I was amazed that we didn't derail. The derailment, at very low speed, happend elswhere...

 

[87015]

A sheep on a train. In a cardboard box.

 

[stut]

No, things like that happen to many of us. A few I can remember:

• Rushing to see an ill loved one in hospital, opting to take a marginally faster, indirect train, only to have someone commit suicide (and the driver subsequently empty his stomach over the carriage - not that anyone could blame him) and be delayed, incommunicado, for several hours. I didn't make it in time
• Another suicide, this time on the late train back from Maidenhead to Paddington. 3 hours delay, got in at 2am, with not a soul in sight.
• Yet another suicide, between Worplesdon and Woking, again late at night. SWT were fantastic, and got me home from Woking to London in a minicab, but veerrrrryyy late.
• FCC train breaking down near Arlesey, out of mobile phone communication, on my way to a job interview. Took over 3 hours to get into Arlesey. Didn't get the job.
• Broken down train, somewhere near Eyemouth, about -10C, failed heating, 2 hours. Not pleasant.
• Managing to delay the entire ECML at Alnmouth (just after the 91s were introduced) when the guard couldn't close the guard's van doors after we put our bikes in...

Well, that's in this country, anyway. I've also:

• Had stones thrown at me on a train in the middle of a general strike in South America.
• Bribed my way across more borders than I'm proud of.
• Enjoyed a 20-hour delay in seated 2nd class in Australia.
• Bribed my way out of trouble (with Vodka) when smoking in the wrong place on a Russian train headed for the Caucasus. Actually, that worked out well - the militsiya involved were great fun after that.
• Entered a suspiciously quiet RER train carriage in Paris, only to discover a fresh human turd sitting proudly in the middle of the floor. Longest journey to Chatelet-les-Halles ever.
• Having to surreptitiously call the police in Romania (no, not my best language) when two drunk farmers in a compartment started seriously harrassing a woman in there.
• Playing the diplomat on the Poland-Slovakia border at about 2am (some time in the early 90s) when the idiot I was travelling with managed to insult the border guard.
• Finding myself on a pre-Schengen Germany-France train with no passport, and in a rather worse for wear (but perfectly polite!) state.

And if you want to count other forms of transport:

• About 3 London bus crashes. Nothing serious, but I did get paranoid for a while.
• A London night bus on the way to Croydon, threatened with a (replica) gun. Thankfully, the guy was drunk, and subsequently managed to fall down the stairs and stumble off the bus.
• On a tram that crashed in St Kilda, Melbourne. Note to drivers: don't argue with trams - you won't win.
• On a tram the derailed in Pyatigorsk, Russia. Seriously ropey track, thankfully nothing serious.
• Threatened by corrupt police on a jeepney in Manila. They recognised us from having failed to bribe them enough the previous day. Took a lot of talking, that one (and was glad to leave the city the next day!)
• Approached and threatened by fake tourist police on the skytrain in Kuala Lumpur. Nothing some loud voices couldn't fix.
• Pushed on to metro tracks in Newcastle. Made it off safely. Too shaken to do anything about it at the time (the perpetrator was long gone anyway).
• Minibus from Peshawar to the Afghan Border, late 90s. Interesting. Particularly the shoot-into-the-air reception we got from every other bus we passed.
• Crazy taxi driving in Yunnan Province, China - effectively driving off a highway through a hedge to avoid the toll.
• Even crazier coach driving in Peru, again during a general strike. The main roads were all blocked, so we were taken down a mountain track. As if the altitude hadn't left me breathless enough already.
• Damn peak-capped corrupt militia everywhere in the Tashkent metro. I so wanted some pictures of Kosmonavtlar station!

And by air:

• More go-arounds than I'd like to remember. It's quite terrifying the first time, as the rapid ascent feels more like rapid descent.
• Engine failure on a BAC 1-11. Ummm...
• Being buffetted by ridiculous winds in little Fokkers so many times. Schiphol, I'm looking at you.
• Being detained for questioning by immigration. Canada, the US and the Netherlands Antilles were particularly joyful moments.
• Interminable delays. Pre-renovation Otopeni is not a nice place for this, believe me. 7-hour tarmac delays in a snowstorm in Austria aren't too pleasant either.
• Burst tyre on landing at London City. Happens a fair amount, apparently, but it doesn't make it feel any better when it happens to you...
• Balkan Bulgarian, Tupolev, mid-80s. Lordy mama, it was awful.

But those are isolated little incidents, that make it all the more colourful. I can't count the number of wonderful moments I've had travelling by train: from the most mundane (being cheered up by the sun rising over Digswell viaduct on the way to work) to the utterly stunning (the descent from Shimla to Kalka). I've met odd people, annoying people, but all sorts of fascinating people, finding ways to communicate, wherever I've been. I've shared food and drink, and I've had the joy of waking up in Bukhara, Venice, Denver, Kislovodsk, Split, Penzance...

Travel is wonderful. Really wonderful. And rail travel is about the best form there is.

 

[b0b]

I have a few that you haven't experienced:

* Train derailment (or possible gapped at points? i dont remember now), followed by subsequent 3rd rail power-down and walking to the nearest station, then trying to figure out a bus from there;

* Trains being hit with rocks/ballast thrown by the local chavs, including one incident in south lanarkshire that caused the train to stop and have a carriage locked out of use

* Getting trapped in the bathroom of an HST when the handle came off in my hand, fortunately that only trapped for 15 mins as we were close to Paddington!!

* Train held at a station so local emergency services could stretcher someone off into a waiting ambulance

no suicides as of yet though.

bonus air story (and i don't fly much):

Bristol to Glasgow flight, depart towards the west. 15 minutes later plane has not turned north. Captain advises we have hydraulic failure (tho there are backup systems) and need to return to Bristol. The worst part knowing something was wrong before the announcement.

 

[Yew]

I had a train that broke down somehow, and the guard had to sit in the back cab radioing something to the driver as his external radio had broken (or something like that)

 

[exile]

Well - I can offer this:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invergowrie_rail_crash

I was in one of the coaches that ended up upside down on the (fortunately dry) sea bed.

 

[b0b]

Well - I can offer this:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invergowrie_rail_crash

I was in one of the coaches that ended up upside down on the (fortunately dry) sea bed.

lock the thread.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Well, let's see... I can claim, amongst other things:

Rail:

Numerous train failures.

Well over 30 instances of being delayed by people under trains.

Having the windows by my seat on both sides of a class 302 almost simultaneously shatter while passing the marshes in the Dagenham area - almost certainly the result of an air gun.

Mid late 1980s - Jubilee train overshot at Charing cross - good job the tunnels were so long! Ended up about 1½ cars into the tunnel, very sharp stop!

A railtour that left the departure point 4 hours late after BR forgot where they had stabled the stock overnight ( and it was only ½ mile away all the time! ) and then it only had one loco instead of the booked two as one had failed...

Another railtour to the same destination 12 months later leaving 1½ hours late because the locomotive hadn't been brought down from a long way away in time... and then discovering that despite it being a 60 it had been given a schedule calling for considerably better than even time.

The free compensatory railtour offered after that second instance in order to cover the rare branch missed out through lack of time itself could not traverse said branch because of engineering work.....:roll:

( Some of you, I am sure, will know exactly which railtours I am referring to! )


Sea:

Sudden squall in the Channel between Dieppe and Brighton while on the experimental French hoverboat "Agnes 200" forcing a one hour heave to waiting for the conditions to calm down. Only had ½ hour of the 2 hour crossing left at the time! Rolling 45° at times.....

15 foot long rip in the skirt of SRN4 GH2007 en route from Calais to Dover.


Air:

Emergency landing on the Flying eye after the other passenger threw up over the radio transmitter - and it was the evening flight on Maundy Thursday ( the busiest rush hour of the year; the one time when they really need the Eye in the air! )

Magneto failure on a Cessna seconds before starting the take off run.


Road:

Front left puncture at 70mph on the M26 while overtaking two lorries..

 

[marks87]

A sheep on a train. In a cardboard box.

I was on the train where the guy dressed as a sheep was set on fire, if that counts. Same carriage and all...

Last year, I had to share a taxi from Aberdeen to Dundee with a marine, and three football fans who added continued to add to their inebriation all the way down the A90 and snorted a line of cocaine each. Goodness knows what cleaning bill ScotRail were hit with (or perhaps it was passed onto Network Rail after the Delay Attribution Board got involved )

And a few years ago now, I was left stranded on New Street for several hours after the hottest day of that year cracked rails.

But other than that, not much has happened to me on the trains.

 

[michael769]

- Detrained (by staff I hasten to add!) from a Glasgow Subway train (it's wet and smelly down there....)
- On a train that hit a car on a level crossing (at 4mph thankfully)
- 5 (ish) bus crashes

 

[Mutant Lemming]

In times past long headways or last trains would mean isolating a car that had a problem rather than tipping out. Keeping passengers out of the isolated car was always a problem as some clown would always relish sitting in a car that other people couldn't get in other than by using the communicating doors even if it meant sitting on a seat festooned with broken light tubes. Over the years it was a continuing problem - vomit or urine on the floors wouldn't deter them, not even a swarm of bees in a carriage on one occasion - then one night at Picc Circus waiting for the green light with the last SB Bakerloo the guard gave me a call and I toddled down to where he was. There was some horrible old hag cackling who had wet herself and was being escorted off the train by the guard and the platform staff. You could see the fleas hopping off her onto the seats. We isolated the car and the guard chalked 'Flea Infestation' on the car windows. Nobody went anywhere near it and from then on whenever we had cause to isolate a car we would chalk flea infestation on the car windows, always worked a treat.

As for your average passenger - do they just switch off and assume anything that occurs is nothing to do with them? On an A stock (pre-refurb OPO days) heading towards Baker St from Watford one early evening some loony got on at Moor Park and piled up loads of newspapers along with some twigs and wood he'd bought along with him and set fire to it. There were other passengers in the carriage who said nothing nor done nothing until Wembley Park SB one bloke was getting off and mentoned I had a fire about 4 cars down. 'He lit it about Northwood Hills but it's getting a bit out of hand now' said he - jolly nice of him to mention it just as he was getting of so as not to disrupt his journey. Wasn't a massive blaze but it was burning away nicely with people sititng not too far from it staring out of the window. 'Anyone see who done this?' I enquired - 'He got off at Harrow, mate' was the reply. Needless to say the train was was tipped out and ran in to the yard at Neasden. Wasn't any major damage but it did make me wonder how some people totally switch off and become oblivious to their surroundings.

 

[PinzaC55]

I've had
1) My first train driver on a night shift out of Hornsey turning up drunk.
2) Working the first UK train booked to travel at 140 MPH.
3) Being 20 feet from the 1992 London Bridge bomb.
4) Having a "one under" at 04.50.

Among other things.

 

[MCR247]

A sheep on a train

Why I try to avoid Derby at all costs

 

[Butts]

On a positive note in the days of British Rail I can remember being put up in a Hotel overnight when there was some problem with a late night service I was travelling on - can't remember where or when.

In the old days when trains had seperate compartments with corridors I can remember sharing an overnight service with five girls !!! . When I woke up in the morning there were bodies everywhere arms and legs intertwined etc. I had a cracking redhead lying on top of me - no I wasn't still asleep dreaming

Being a perfect gentleman I made my apologies and hastily retired to the WC to complete my morning ablutions

Oh those were the days - probably be arrested for harassment today !!!