Conductor fell between train and platform at Shipley (16/01)

[Eric]

Sorry to report that this unfortunate incident happend tonight after the conductor slipped on the ice and snow and went under the train at Shipley on Platform 5.

Can anyone who works in the industry let me know how he is?

He was taken away in an ambulance.

Why the platform wasn't gritted is a health and safety issue.

 

[northernchris]

Hope the conductor is OK, it's quite a gap on platform 5 too!

Carillion are responsible for the maintenance / gritting etc. at Northern stations so not sure if this will be impacted due to their demise? As an aside many roads around Shipley/Bradford either haven't been gritted or were gritted much earlier in the day leading to some very dangerous road conditions

 

[Eric]

Hope the conductor is OK, it's quite a gap on platform 5 too!

Carillion are responsible for the maintenance / gritting etc. at Northern stations so not sure if this will be impacted due to their demise? As an aside many roads around Shipley/Bradford either haven't been gritted or were gritted much earlier in the day leading to some very dangerous road conditions

I've never measured the gap on platform 5 but it must be one of the largest on the network?

The train was terminated at Shipley and the platform conditions were atrocious.

Hopefully someone can give an update on the conductors condition.

 

[johntea]

I have to say walking home from work in Harrogate this evening I was slipping and sliding myself, it had tried to snow and then must have frozen up pretty quickly!

Did the weather forecast predict it for today?

 

[Mugby]

Have I got this right; the TOC is responsible for platform surfaces, gritting etc. and they contract such things out to whoever submits (probably the lowest) tender?

 

[LowLevel]

It's unfortunate but they won't be the first or last - hope they're OK!

 

[Adam0984]

I believe it happened at Saltaire and the Ambulance met the train at Shipley

 

[4069]

That's correct, the injury occurred at Saltaire.

 

[Bantamzen]

Oh heck, hope they are OK? Some of the gaps on the Aire line are hair-raising enough eve without snow & ice.

 

[rich r]

Given that it was sleeting for most of the day yesterday here in West Yorkshire with periods of just snow, the grit would have washed away anyway. When the temperature dropped after 5pm most of the slush and water turned to ice on roads and of course platforms.

It's one of those things that happen that aren't always avoidable, the big platform gaps don't help but it isn't necessarily negligence that caused the accident - hopefully he's OK.

 

[OxtedSignaller]

Have I got this right; the TOC is responsible for platform surfaces, gritting etc. and they contract such things out to whoever submits (probably the lowest) tender?

On Northern it is by the sounds of it. Down South at least it’s down to the Station staff to do the gritting. Surely even if it wasn’t gritted down to what happened to Carillon the TOC should of organised for its station staff to do the winter precautions.

 

[High Dyke]

Hopefully the guard concerned hasn't been seriously injured, and i wish them a full recovery. My own wife, also a guard, is off work having suffered similarly before Christmas. The circumstances of her case are currently being looked into.

Whilst I can't comment on the incident the OP refers to the TOC will have a plan in place for managing station cleaning, gritting etc. If they subcontract that out then there should be a default plan should said contractor not fulfill their contract. That said it may be the case the platform was treated correctly and the weather set in afterwards.

Now ask yourself what would've happened if it had been a member of public that had fallen in such circumstances on a DOO service and hadn't been spotted by the driver?

 

[eastdyke]

Saltaire is an unstaffed Station.
Given the road conditions at the time whoever was responsible for the mobile platform gritting team would likely have had difficulty.
I too hope that the Staff Member is making a speedy recovery.

 

[bb21]

It's happened before at stations down south where staff take care of the platforms, at least three I'm aware of in recent times where a member of staff injured themselves due to adverse weather conditions and platform not being properly treated, so I don't see why subcontracting it out to an external organisation in this case is such a big deal. Can someone please explain?

 

[Bantamzen]

Saltaire is an unstaffed Station.
Given the road conditions at the time whoever was responsible for the mobile platform gritting team would likely have had difficulty.

Indeed, the road conditions in the area deteriorated quite badly during yesterday evening with a lot of black ice forming and Saltaire can be an awkward place to reach when the traffic is bad and/or the road conditions are not favourable.

 

[bb21]

No DOO discussion please.

No ifs, no buts.

Use the existing Northern DOO thread if you must.

 

[Eric]

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co....red_after_falling_between_train_and_platform/

A TRAIN conductor has been taken to hospital after falling between a train and the platform in Shipley tonight.

The incident happened sometime around 8pm and forced the cancellation of the 20.09 service from Forster Square to Skipton.

A spokesman for Network Rail confirmed the incident and said an ambulance had been called and the man, not believed to be seriously injured, was being taken to hospital.

The 20.35 service was expected to run as normal.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Given the road conditions at the time whoever was responsible for the mobile platform gritting team would likely have had difficulty.

Almost certainly. My sister works in Halifax and the whole town was gridlocked to such an extent she had to walk home to Queensbury. Bet that was fun.

Given that Saltaire's traffic is horrific at the best of times, it's likely to be one of those things.

Hope the guard recovers quickly and hasn't injured too much.

 

[Bromley boy]

I hope he makes a speedy recovery.

 

[Moonshot]

As a Northern Guard myself, falling on platforms is not that unusual. Falling below sole bar level is though. It has happened before, the last one I know about was in the summer period.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

What a terribly unfortunate thing to happen. I certainly hope the conductor (and indeed Mr Dyke’s wife) recover soon.

 

[thejuggler]

Hope the conductor is OK, it's quite a gap on platform 5 too!

Carillion are responsible for the maintenance / gritting etc. at Northern stations so not sure if this will be impacted due to their demise?

My local unmanned station was always gritted when I arrived - if I left on a very early train the Carillion van was parked up and the operative was emptying bins and gritting. Since their demise there has been no further gritting - there was really bad ice on the platform yesterday morning.

I've not been out yet this morning, but it is icy again and I suspect the platform won't have been treated.

 

[Clip]

It's happened before at stations down south where staff take care of the platforms, at least three I'm aware of in recent times where a member of staff injured themselves due to adverse weather conditions and platform not being properly treated, so I don't see why subcontracting it out to an external organisation in this case is such a big deal. Can someone please explain?

Because outsourcing is the devils work and must never happen and must all be in house with a station master on each station and a porter and steam locos and so on and so forth.

I remember a few years ago now when it was bad snow and our team couldn't get round everywhere in one night I even ended up at one station shovelling snow off the platforms as it had to be done. Was back within the hour but it was a right ball ache

 

[Merseysider]

I've not been out yet this morning, but it is icy again and I suspect the platform won't have been treated.

That’s an accident waiting to happen...

 

[DarloRich]

I am surprised platforms aren't gritted if LM could manage to grit all of the Marston Vale line platforms during cold weather!

 

[northwichcat]

Some of the gaps on the Aire line are hair-raising enough eve without snow & ice.

Does using trains with carriages which exceed 23m in length, while still being wide enough for 3+2 seating make the problem worse? There's very few classes of trains where the carriages have similar dimensions.

 

[alexl92]

Out of interest, why are the gaps on the Airedale line so big compared to elsewhere?

 

[Bantamzen]

Does using trains with carriages which exceed 23m in length, while still being wide enough for 3+2 seating make the problem worse? There's very few classes of trains where the carriages have similar dimensions.

Truthfully I couldn't say for sure, the gaps at Shipley & Saltaire feel equally as wide with a 333 or 321/322, in fact the latter two classes feel wider if anything though that is purely anecdotal.

Out of interest, why are the gaps on the Airedale line so big compared to elsewhere?

For stations like Saltaire, perhaps the rather cheap & cheerful construction of the the wooden platforms as well as being on bends. As for Shipley, well the nature of the station with 4 converging routes into a triangular station avoiding a river, canal and beck has meant that thus far no better solution has been found than the original Victorian design. And I may be wrong but were some lines such as P5 were re-aligned to reduce the curvature of the track but not the platform?

 

[Crossover]

Almost certainly. My sister works in Halifax and the whole town was gridlocked to such an extent she had to walk home to Queensbury. Bet that was fun.

Dewsbury was complete chaos on Tuesday night with the weather - a number of roads out are hills which were very slippy. From what I have heard, it had been gritted in the afternoon, but it had rained before it turned to snow and started settling and then freezing.

 

[Spartacus]

Dewsbury was complete chaos on Tuesday night with the weather - a number of roads out are hills which were very slippy. From what I have heard, it had been gritted in the afternoon, but it had rained before it turned to snow and started settling and then freezing.

It didn't help that some people were driving like total imbeciles, from those who thought the answer to the problem of driving up a hill in light snow is more power (and were no doubt confused by the ability of everyone who was going past their stranded cars), to those who decided to descend at speeds below walking pace. You only need a small number of those two examples for things to turn chaotic.