Local paper reports on leaked FCC incident reports

[jon0844]

Sorry I didn't go for such a sensationalised headline like the paper, or indeed as you'd expect from the Daily Mail etc.

Link: http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/leake...83?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=twitterfeed

LEAKED confidential documents have this week revealed safety breaches on First Capital Connect trains, in and around Welwyn Hatfield.

The reports – called ‘major incident narratives’ – detail the nature of the breaches and action taken against offending staff.

An ex-employee of First Capital Connect (FCC) posted the reports online after he had been surreptitiously sent them by a current member of staff, whose identity remains unknown.

One such narrative, from March 8 this year, told of a driver who was stopped by an emergency braking system at Digswell, near Welwyn North Station, after he forgot which signal was showing and failed to report the breach to rail bosses.

The driver was said to be facing disciplinary action over the blunder and was subject to a safety panel meeting before being allowed back on driving duties.

The report read: “The driver of [train] 2R53 approached [signal] K622 during foggy weather after an uneventful journey.

“He realised he could not recall the previous signal aspect and shut off power, but received an emergency brake application approaching a red signal.

“After coming to a stand, the driver reset and continued his journey without reporting the incident to the signaller.

“The driver states that he was distracted after being unable to collect another member of staff at Baldock, and did not report the incident immediately for fear of further delays.”

Other revelations showed that on February 2 a driver overshot the platform at Aswell and Morden and another stopped short of St Pancras station and opened the doors, on March 13.

And a member of dispatch staff at Stevenage Station attempted to move a train off despite a red signal showing on March 14.

Lee Webb, who tweeted pictures of the files last week, told the Welwyn Hatfield Times: “They are from a source of mine on First Capital Connect’s internal website.”

A spokesman for First Capital Connect dismissed the incidents as “minor” and said: “These internal reports demonstrate that we take safety extremely seriously at First Capital Connect: every incident, however minor, is investigated thoroughly and action taken.”

He added: “Our passengers were safe at all times because systems automatically stop a train if it passes a signal at danger.

“At Digswell the driver was slowing down and would have been able to stop before the signal but because of the margins built into the safety system, the emergency brakes came on first.”

I am sure these incidents aren't uncommon at all, and at least FCC has given a fairly good response instead of hiding.

 

[Class377/5]

Sorry I didn't go for such a sensationalised headline like the paper, or indeed as you'd expect from the Daily Mail etc.

Link: http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/leake...83?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=twitterfeed



I am sure these incidents aren't uncommon at all, and at least FCC has given a fairly good response instead of hiding.

Seems the paper thinks St Pancras is near Welywn it seem and they misunderstand the turn stopped short too.

Then again when a fired member of staff is passing on internal documents I'm sure certain things are being misreported.

 

[asylumxl]

How can he forget the previous signals aspect?

Surely the AWS "sunflower" would have been illuminated. If he had truly forgotten he could have braked as if he was approaching a red.

 

[EM2]

Ah, I know a couple of people who have had run-ins with this particular ex-staff member.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if FCC were to take this further.

 

[Matt Taylor]

It was only a matter of time before this got to the papers, the reports have been published on Twitter on a regular basis by an account which is evidently run by someone who didn't leave FCC of their own accord.

 

[A-driver]

How can he forget the previous signals aspect?

Surely the AWS "sunflower" would have been illuminated. If he had truly forgotten he could have braked as if he was approaching a red.

I think that comment is best left unanswered to be honest or else this thread will quickly descend into arguments yet again with the same old people who have never driven a train in their lives telling us how we should do our jobs! Plus there was obviously far far more to it than shown in that article.

FCC seem to have responded well there but to be honest its nothing unique to FCC. Go to any rail company in the UK and infact the world and you will find almost identical incident lists. Luckily very few lead to serious consequences but be assured all are treated as if they did.

Stop shorts, wrong side door releases, spads, TPWS, fail to call, overshoots are all incidents which di occur but a lot of time and money is spent reducing them. And if dealt with properly, like they usually are, will not necessarily cause any real danger to anyone.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

How can he forget the previous signals aspect?

Read about the Purley accident and then answer the question. That is just one way.

Surely the AWS "sunflower" would have been illuminated. If he had truly forgotten he could have braked as if he was approaching a red.

Generally speaking, the 'sunflower' will tell you one of two things, the last signal was green or the last signal was not green. Much of the FCC Network has four aspect signalling.

I could be wrong, but ISTR that speed restriction warnings also change the 'sunflower' to show a restrictive aspect (even if the last signal was green).

 

[Cherry_Picker]

How can he forget the previous signals aspect?

Surely the AWS "sunflower" would have been illuminated. If he had truly forgotten he could have braked as if he was approaching a red.

You'd be surprised mate. It could be one of a hundred reasons so any speculation will be entirely unfounded, but what if he had been running under restrictive aspects for an hour or more? What if it was five days into a long working week? What if he had been running on greens and the AWS had been for a speed restriction?

People make mistakes. When you consider that the best part of twenty thousand trains run every day and they pass a million signals without incident then you have to appreciate it is a safe system. However, when you are dealing with numbers like that you will get incidents from time to time, even if they are only a tiny fraction of one percent of all the trains that run.

 

[asylumxl]

I think you guys might be getting the end of the stick. I'm not criticising the person involved or anything of that sort, I don't know the circumstances. I'm just wondering how drivers would approach this. I imagine the papers been a bit "liberal" with the truth.

While I'm no driver, logic would tell me to check if the AWS indicator showed I'd passed a restrictive aspect, and if it did, slow down as if I was approaching a red signal. Better to add some delay minutes rather than SPAD, right? Thoughts?

 

[the sniper]

While I'm no driver, logic would tell me to check if the AWS indicator showed I'd passed a restrictive aspect, and if it did, slow down as if I was approaching a red signal. Better to add some delay minutes rather than SPAD, right? Thoughts?

Going by that brief account in the paper the driver shut off power. The article doesn't say the driver had a SPAD, so they presumably slowed down enough to be stopped before the red signal? If the driver had passed the red signal, I doubt they'd have just reset and kept going, though I know that's happened in different circumstances.

Anyway, non-story. Here's hoping the poor folks at the Welwyn Hatfield Times never care to see a RAIB report...

 

[O L Leigh]

Thoughts?

I don't think we can rely on ANY media outlet to report on any matter related to railway operations with sufficient accuracy to draw any conclusions whatsoever.

O L Leigh

 

[asylumxl]

Going by that brief account in the paper the driver shut off power. The article doesn't say the driver had a SPAD, so they presumably slowed down enough to be stopped before the red signal? If the driver had passed the red signal, I doubt they'd have just reset and kept going, though I know that's happened in different circumstances.

It mentions an automatic emergency brake application. I'm guessing this was due to TPWS?

 

[455driver]

It mentions an automatic emergency brake application. I'm guessing this was due to TPWS?

At a guess a TPWS overspeed sensor.
After reading the article none of the incidents seem major but a few bits are possibly in breach of the rules.
Must be a quiet news day.

 

[A-driver]

It mentions an automatic emergency brake application. I'm guessing this was due to TPWS?

I'm not going to say too much as I know the driver involved personally and there are still a few bits of the disciplinary going on but like any incident it was a number of factors affecting his judgment in both the activation of the TPWS and the way that it was reported.

That particular 'story' is basically along the lines of..."railway safety system did its job perfectly and prevented a train from passing a signal at danger when the driver momentarily lost his bearings/concentration due to a number of unusual circumstances. No real harm done, and it has been fully investigated and dealt with by various industry groups. "

Of course that isn't such a good story!

 

[asylumxl]

That particular 'story' is basically along the lines of..."railway safety system did its job perfectly and prevented a train from passing a signal at danger when the driver momentarily lost his bearings/concentration due to a number of unusual circumstances. No real harm done, and it has been fully investigated and dealt with by various industry groups. "

Of course that isn't such a good story!

Which was what I was alluding to in my original post. There are systems to prevent it, and is a total non story.

 

[A-driver]

Which was what I was alluding to in my original post. There are systems to prevent it, and is a total non story.

Indeed. Its not a story that it happened and shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that these things do happen. Infact the only reason that such systems exist is because these kind of incidents happen. If this kind if thing was unheard of then the reasources would never have been spent on developing such a system!