Passengers were allegedly exposed to a live rail when a train stopped short of its mark
Rail passengers were exposed to a live track carrying 750,000 volts at Guildford station, according to an RMT member.
Speaking on Wednesday morning (November 8) at the Woking station picket line during a 48-hour strike in a dispute over the future of guards, RMT Wessex regional organiser Mick Tosh claimed passengers were dangerously exposed to the live track.
"I mean, we’ve seen this morning already that in the first hour we had reported that at Guildford station train doors opened onto a live rail with 750,000 volts running through it and that the doors were open on the wrong side of the train and exposing the passengers to that," he said.
“Hopefully they [passengers] are not getting on the trains with people that are not properly trained to operate as guards."
When asked to explain reasons for strike action, he added: "What we are trying to do is to defend the position of having a second safety critical persons on every train to make the trains safer for the travelling public.
"Absolutely the previous franchise holder had a guarantee of a second safety critical person always being there. The new owners now want to change that, they want to be in a place where they can run trains with just the driver. We don’t believe that to be safe."
South Western Railway said although there was no incident reported to have happened on Wednesday morning, there was a similar incident at Guildford station earlier this week.
"After investigating this fully, we do not have any record of this incident," a spokesman said.
"However, a similar incident occurred at Guildford station earlier this week where a train stopped short of its mark and the doors were opened.
"No-one alighted at this point and, after closing the doors, the train moved forward to its correct mark to allow passengers to leave the train."
Source: http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-train-doors-opened-wrong-13872902
Take this with a pinch of salt, as GetSurrey doesn't have a very good reputation for accurate reporting.
Anyone got any ideas about the safe working distance from 750kV?