Almost got trapped inside Leamington Spa station for the night

[enginedin]

sort of assumed that if you rang a non emergency line at the time in question here you’d probably get an answering machine!

the 101 call handlers are in the same call centres as police 999 operators, and it is a 24 hour service. Answering times are an issue tho - my last 101 call was going to be a 15 min wait so I gave up. I also note that 101 is only for territorial police forces - BTP don't have the service, so calling 101 in the instance of the OP might mean you end up in a bit of a black hole of being passed around agencies

 

[Newtraveller58]

Slightly off topic but Geoff Marshall has posted within the last couple of days a You Tube video about a day he spent with Network Rails Emergency Intervention Unit. Although focusing on Sussex no doubt they have a base in the Leamington area although may take a while to get to you. If a call to 101 could be passed through to these people it could have been your salvation and has the benefit that because they are aligned with Network Rail they could follow up with the station on locking up procedures and emergency evacuation routes.

I don’t think Network Rail staff would have keys for a station unless it was regarded as a line side access. Hopefully, NR would contact the local TOC control and get an on call TOC manager out to assist.

 

[TUC]

Is there no one in the control rooms of each TOC whom, seeing a seriously late running late night train, sees it as their job to contact the right people and ensure stations will still be open?

 

[12LDA28C]

I don’t think Network Rail staff would have keys for a station unless it was regarded as a line side access. Hopefully, NR would contact the local TOC control and get an on call TOC manager out to assist.

Do TOCs have on-call managers for this kind of thing? I know they have on-call for Operational incidents but this wouldn't come under their remit.

 

[skyhigh]

Do TOCs have on-call managers for this kind of thing?

They do, yes.

 

[enginedin]

Do TOCs have on-call managers for this kind of thing? I know they have on-call for Operational incidents but this wouldn't come under their remit.

the longer that Network Rail and TOCs argue about whose responsibility it is, the longer the trapped passengers have got to contact the press....

 

[12LDA28C]

the longer that Network Rail and TOCs argue about whose responsibility it is, the longer the trapped passengers have got to contact the press....

Huh? Where did I mention Network Rail? I was merely making the point that an on-call Operations / Driver Manager would not be in possession of station keys and this would more likely fall under the remit of Retail.

 

[enginedin]

Huh? Where did I mention Network Rail?

Sorry, you didn't, but others in this thread have I was making the point that the longer "the railway" argue internally about who should fix the problem, the longer the customer has got to take matters into their own hands and create a Daily Mail headline...

 

[RPM]

Do TOCs have on-call managers for this kind of thing? I know they have on-call for Operational incidents but this wouldn't come under their remit.

They did in my day. Been there, got the t-shirt etc. Please drive from Buckinghamshire to Solihull and unlock the station.

 

[Falcon1200]

the longer that Network Rail and TOCs argue about whose responsibility it is, the longer the trapped passengers have got to contact the press....

"the railway" argue internally about who should fix the problem, the longer the customer has got to take matters into their own hands and create a Daily Mail headline...

There would be absolutely no arguing over responsibility; If one of the few Network Rail managed stations, Network Rail (NR), otherwise whichever TOC runs the station. The Police have dedicated contact with NR and NR would waste no time advising the TOC.

 

[12LDA28C]

Sorry, you didn't, but others in this thread have I was making the point that the longer "the railway" argue internally about who should fix the problem, the longer the customer has got to take matters into their own hands and create a Daily Mail headline...

I see no argument about who would fix the problem. If the TOC Retail Dept. have an on-call or out-of-hours Manager then it's their job to get called out to unlock a station. Simple. Although in this instance clearly someone should have stayed on to keep the station open until the last train had left.

 

[Vectorspace]

I was very lucky that those trackside workers were there at 1:30am. I wonder what the odds of that were

 

[tumbledown]

No crime in progress.

Yes there was. False imprisonment.

 

[infobleep]

Yes there was. False imprisonment.

Can one falsely imprison someone by accident?

 

[WAB]

Do TOCs have on-call managers for this kind of thing? I know they have on-call for Operational incidents but this wouldn't come under their remit.

Yes - this’ll often be a roster drawn from the station managers and other management roles aligned with stations.

No offence of the OP, but I can't think from what's been said so far that he's withholding any pertinent information that might mean his intention to call 999 was justifiable. And they did say they would be ringing NRET first, which does suggest a lack of emergency. Even they might have got a bit cross, given the name "National Rail Emergency Telephone" implies it's the railway 999 service, but others probably know better. Maybe they do deal with both emergencies and lesser incidents. Couldn't tell you. But I'd certainly check first before assuming the latter (I'm assuming the OP had a smartphone).

My first port of call would be the help point as it should connect to the appropriate TOC Control who will know who to call out. If this is not possible, it’d be a call to the Network Rail helpline as there is the potential for serious welfare issues and trespass on the line if passengers are left trapped.

 

[Darandio]

Yes there was. False imprisonment.

Amazed it took 43 posts for this to be trotted out.

 

[Adam Williams]

it should connect to the appropriate TOC Control who will know who to call out

Wasn't there a thread on the forums that suggested a number of help points simply route to the public-facing National Rail Enquiries call centre number?

In which case they're about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

What do Chiltern's do?

 

[duffield]

Trapped next to the running lines of a busy railway with no guarantee that anyone else trapped in there with you isn’t about to do something that would put themselves in danger or prejudice safety on the railway…. “Next time please wait until people start walking along the tracks”
...

That's an excellent point. If you are trapped, but otherwise fine either by yourself or with a small group who can be trusted, it's true it's not an emergency initially.

But if you're with a random selection of people who you have no control over but can only advise, the chances that someone will do something stupid and possibly fatal rise rapidly with the number of people involved and the amount of time that has passed. In that case it's quite reasonable to present it as an emergency if you think there's a high risk of people doing something like walking along or crossing the live tracks, or climbing up somewhere dangerous to escape, and as you point out, you should not have to wait until they actually do this.

The situations where people trapped on stranded trains (but perfectly safe) have then self-evacuated onto extremely dangerous sections of the live railway after relatively short times have passed illustrate that this possibility is not just theoretical.

 

[renegademaster]

Hopefully the 999 operators would have the NR emergency number somewhere easy to access on their computers (or actual emergencies like trespassers and people who fell on the track etc), rather than bouncing people to 101 whom will then make someone wait 15 minutes to be bounced to NR

 

[TUC]

Do TOCs have on-call managers for this kind of thing? I know they have on-call for Operational incidents but this wouldn't come under their remit.

Surely it shouldn't rely upon someone having the initiative to call them? There should be a standard checklist of the actions to take when a late evening train is significantly late.

 

[Retorus]

Yes there was. False imprisonment.

This is unbelievable.

 

[12LDA28C]

Surely it shouldn't rely upon someone having the initiative to call them? There should be a standard checklist of the actions to take when a late evening train is significantly late.

Indeed, as I clearly stated in post #41 thus:

Although in this instance clearly someone should have stayed on to keep the station open until the last train had left.

 

[Spaceship323]

A lot of stations have help points too, which is probably what I’d attempt to use first.

Does Leamington have a help point given that it's usually fully staffed when trains are running?

 

[Parallel]

Does Leamington have a help point given that it's usually fully staffed when trains are running?

The National Rail website does list help points available at Leamington Spa.

 

[Adam Williams]

Can confirm they exist

 

[TUC]

Indeed, as I clearly stated in post #41 thus:

Although in this instance clearly someone should have stayed on to keep the station open until the last train had left.

My point is more than someone should have. It's that there should be clear processes which kick into action for a late evening severely delayed train.

 

[012345]

You’ve got to love this forum. What started off with broadly “I arrived late in a station and was let out” has, within a page and a half, reached the stage of discussing what constitutes false imprisonment.

 

[Kite159]

Does Leamington have a help point given that it's usually fully staffed when trains are running?

The existence of help points don't always mean they are useful. Especially if it goes to the Indian call centre of National Rail Enquiries who are quite useless.

 

[Adam Williams]

You’ve got to love this forum. What started off with broadly “I arrived late in a station and was let out” has, within a page and a half, reached the stage of discussing what constitutes false imprisonment.

That reminds me, actually. Leamington Spa actually has a post box on one of the platforms.

Does anyone know if it would be illegal to open other people's post from inside the postbox? I'm sure we could get a few more pages out of that. /s

---

If nothing else, at least OP wasn't stuck at Coventry. Every cloud etc. I'm sure Chiltern will have some lessons learnt from this, and hopefully there won't be a repeat.

 

[infobleep]

You’ve got to love this forum. What started off with broadly “I arrived late in a station and was let out” has, within a page and a half, reached the stage of discussing what constitutes false imprisonment.

When you put it like that. It's rather funny.

Something went wrong, yes, but no one was imprsioned on purpose or for rhe fun of it.