Olton Station locked on Saturday 6/6/2026

Swedenorer said:

As with one or two posters above anyone with any experience of licensing would take this incredibly seriously. I hope WMR are.

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I would hope ORR are taking it even more seriously. If the only exit for those trapped on site is the running lines, it’s a pretty serious situation.

Bletchleyite said:

We can't lock people in trains.

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Um, yes you can. There have been cases of passengers stuck on ECS trains and ending up in depots.

Horizon22 said:

Um, yes you can. There have been cases of passengers stuck on ECS trains and ending up in depots.

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Only if they didn't pull the passcom or egress. Some people are so resistant to doing things like that, however, because it feels "naughty" or they might get "fined", that they won't do it in cases like this where it is justified.

I have been locked on a terminated Thameslink train where the driver wandered off without properly checking the train was empty and that all doors had released correctly (they hadn't, some sort of SDO issue had caused only some to release and I was right at the back, and he'd locked up and disappeared off before I got far enough forward). I used the egress and exited onto the platform (having tried the passcom first with no answer), reporting having done so to staff, the equivalent of using the "push bar" fire exit in this station - if it had one!

While staff can override the egress, if one was pulled on an ECS a driver who did this would frankly not be worthy of their job - if it's possible to pull one there's someone on board who shouldn't be, and that must be investigated once safe to do so. And if there are no staff on board, there's nobody to override it so it will work. Yes, you can lock every door out of use but when is that ever done in 2026 away from odd "grandfather rights" cases like the Ffestiniog?

Swedenorer said:

Looking at the layout of the station the only exit to the street has shutters and nothing that could be fitted with a panic bolt and indeed is the only practicable exit and proabaly did need the fire and rescue attendance. Looking at the timetable and the station layout I'd be very interested indeed in the results of an investigation as to what time that station was actually locked up. As with one or two posters above anyone with any experience of licensing would take this incredibly seriously. I hope WMR are.

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As the combination of people locked inside and fire / power failure is near zero, surely an electronic “push to exit” button would do the trick (as in many public buildings/hotels. Though from what I remember of Olton, wouldn’t you need to get into the building first, before getting out again?

Bletchleyite said:

Only if they didn't pull the passcom or egress. Some people are so resistant to doing things like that, however, because it feels "naughty" or they might get "fined", that they won't do it in cases like this where it is justified.

I have been locked on a terminated Thameslink train where the driver wandered off without properly checking the train was empty and that all doors had released correctly (they hadn't, some sort of SDO issue had caused only some to release and I was right at the back, and he'd locked up and disappeared off before I got far enough forward). I used the egress and exited onto the platform (having tried the passcom first with no answer), reporting having done so to staff, the equivalent of using the "push bar" fire exit in this station - if it had one!

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If they pull the passcom / egress whilst the train is on the move, then the driver is probably going to continue to terminus anyway and escort the passenger off the train via the safe walking route.

Often these are people sleeping with a poor sweep by the platform staff / driver / guard (or combination thereof).

Horizon22 said:

If they pull the passcom / egress whilst the train is on the move, then the driver is probably going to continue to terminus anyway and escort the passenger off the train via the safe walking route.

Often these are people sleeping with a poor sweep by the platform staff / driver / guard (or combination thereof).

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Probably so. But it isn't equivalent to the station, because there is someone there dealing with their (eventual) exit.

If, as per the station, no staff were on board, the egress would work.

Bletchleyite said:

Probably so. But it isn't equivalent to the station, because there is someone there dealing with their (eventual) exit.

If, as per the station, no staff were on board, the egress would work.

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Yes I suppose it would. Neither situation is acceptable of course.

This is the second time this has happened at this station. It's not the station staff that open and lock up here; there was a Sunday when they couldn't get the shutters up, so they just left them, and trains still called at the station.

The exile said:

As the combination of people locked inside and fire / power failure is near zero, surely an electronic “push to exit” button would do the trick (as in many public buildings/hotels. Though from what I remember of Olton, wouldn’t you need to get into the building first, before getting out again?

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Yes there is only one practicable exit. Any sensible risk assessment here would lead to the replacement of the shutters with a panic bolted exit fitted with automatic door closers. What shutters actually mean here is that even railway personnel could not leave the premises or safely evacuate a train in an emergency.

norbitonflyer said:

Do/ should train crew have a responsibility to ensure the station where passengers are alighting has a means of egress?

Maybe as part of the locking up procedure, the person doing it should put up "station closed" signs at a place clearly visible to train crew. This does happen on the Underground (albeit for maintenance closures, and in the past on stations that were clsoed on Sundays) rather than regular overnight ones). Of course, the lockup man could just check the PIS display to see if a train is expected.

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Putting a sign that the driver could see is a good idea, but staff looking at displays to check for late trains is bad and would lead to incidents like this.

A late train could be reinstated or a stop put on another service later on that staff might not be looking out for, so control would firstly need to be mindful of this and speak to staff, while the staff member would also need to have the means to properly check what's going on if the last train hasn't yet been.

If there was disruption then the obvious solution would be leaving the station open if the staff member couldn't stay on. Then control can work out a way to get it locked later if necessary.