Recent content by Centralsimon

It wasn't the railway at its very best Ticket acceptance is a legally protected right and the games played to claim otherwise is silly and places staff in conflict positions and is unnecessary Be honest, say while your ticket is valid, services from St Pancras and Euston are leaving full and...

It was definitely time and onboard conditions that increased the risks. The onboard staff were in control and this mitigated this, but eventually patience ran out. RDG guidance states that an uncontrolled evacuation risk increases significantly after 90 mins. I suggest most on board never knew...

Correct. Apart from the apparent self releasing of doors by passengers, the only doors open were staffed by BTP and had no barriers. It was amazing how much difference this made. I suspect the issue here, is the crew are preparing for an evacuation and truthfully things shouldnt take so long...

RDG guidance says evacuation should commence by 60 mins and be completed within 90 mins, depending on other risks such as heat / cold/ light/ self evacuation The Thunderbird from York would never have arrived within the 90 mins window so in the Knebworth incident the decision was made to bring...

Correct. From my position doors were opened eventually by passengers but I didnt witness any attempt to self evacuate. But of course once doors open, a self evacuation is only a few mins behind. The onboard staff behaved in an exemplary way, hosts / catering staff positioned around the train. I...

To keep things on topic :D I would suggest, to comply with RDG guidance of a 60 min evacuation of an electric train in warm weather, multiple responses would have been required. Here we had a station around 100m away, with limited facilities but a highly viable access point. We had 3 open...

It was a deeply unpleasant experience. Was standing in doorway of coach C as train already fairly packed at Peterborough Was travelling to work with a colleague, so we offered support and reassurance to those about us, offering basic first aid advice. I observed 2 people from coach B being...

I had the great displeasure of being on 1A18 yesterday. Firstly the crew and off duty LNER staff behaved professionally and admirably. The train manager was a real credit to LNER for their actions. However how the failure was handled was appalling and should be investigated by regulatory...

It probably derived its name from the bridge named Spittal Bridge. So named as it was the rough area of a Leper Hopsital called St Leonards 1100s. Spital being an ancient term for hospital of the poor.

Anyone trying to escape Leeds after yesterday's disruption will find this morning is not the best of starts Over running engineering works and now a power supply problem has closed Kings Cross and probably everything south of Peterborough.

Can't quite work out the logic at Stevange to manage this failure as I sat in a queue of trains. The logic appears to be keep the LNERs in a long queue on the fast while diverting GTR, Lumo, GC onto the slow. Trains on the slow appear to be far less delayed than those queuing. Final icing on...

This highlights a critical problem of who is standing up for the consumer. The consumer has rights under not only the conditions of carriage but also the Consumer rights act. Are there any legal cases in this area? Taking an unpaid fares notice onboard then appealing it and refusing to pay and...

Surely an example that rail companies should stop thinking they can tick their inclusion box by a sticker on the side of their trains or a poster on their stations ? Train ever member of staff isn't impossible and any senior leader who won't support compulsory training should reconsider their...

This weekend I need to travel from East Croydon to Peterborough. Plus I am sure we are aware that the line from King's Cross is closed so will need to travel via Bedford and bus. However LNER are offering advance fares with restriction code GD for the journey GD states on specific LNER train...

Checking this morning, 1S30 is still moving Fair play and I doff my cap for the crews and schedulers who I assume found a night crew to take it over, and an uncomfortable night on a train is superior to a platform bench. But the train is nearly 8 hours late. I struggle to fully understand...