Driver misses station

[TDK]

Yes, it was the mid 1990's. But the principles were the same, if the driver admitted misjudgment or misreading the timetable then it was one thing, but, if he blamed the set, it would heve been sent for a brake and speedo test as soon as possible, just as if it was an SPD. Station over runs were actually quite rare.

Sorry but there is no comparison with a fail to call and a SPAD. A driver can call poor brakes or defective speedo at any time and the train will be taken out for check. The consequences of a SPAD are severe and this was proved at Ladbrook Grove the consequences of a fail to call is just commercial and not really what I would calss as a safety of the line incident.

 

[O L Leigh]

Am seeing both sides to this.

The problem here is that the railway authorities treat all types of incidents as "safety of the line" (SOL) incidents, irrespective of the outcome. We've had these arguments many many times in various messrooms that a failure-to-call (FTC) has not compromised safety, so how come it's classified as an SOL incident? Well it just is, as a colleague of mine discovered.

As such, if you have any sort of SOL incident the management response is likely to be the same whether it's an FTC, station overrun or a SPAD. You are likely to be relieved of duty, possibly medscreened for intoxicants (a definite in the case of a SPAD) and interviewed by management to try and understand the causes and factors that lead up to the SOL incident. You may be off the road for a few days and will almost certainly have some manner of action plan to help you avoid a repeat of the mistake. So in that sense, an overrun is treated in exactly the same way as a SPAD.

The other thing is that these sorts of "lesser" SOL incidents are often precursors to something more serious. A DM once told me that the stats show that drivers with more than one FTC or overrun are at much higher risk of going on to have a SPAD than those with one or fewer. These other SOL incidents could be indicators of poor cab discipline, bad driving habits or a lack of concentration. Even routine monitoring using OTMR downloads have shown where poor driving technique has almost resulted in an SOL incident or shown up a particularly high-risk behaviour. Using all these indicators can help management to identify those drivers most at risk of having an SOL incident and to help them avoid having them.

**EDIT**

You can indeed claim that a contributory factor in an SOL incident is poor brakes or a faulty speedo, but the effectiveness of doing so is questionable. If you overran your very first station stop then there might be a case, but if you're on your third round trip on the same unit and then you suddenly slide through one it might not be quite so effective. Likewise, you don't get very far before carrying out a running brake test which should highlight that the train has a poor brake and you would modify your driving style accordingly to allow for it.

Faulty speedos can be a bit harder to diagnose, but not massively so. If a train seems to take an age to reach linespeed and then you arrive at the next place early after nearly overrunning the platform, then there's a good chance it's the speedo. Maybe it's just me, but I've got a pretty good nose for these things and can usually identify them within a couple of station stops. However, in common with poor brakes, these are the kinds of things that drivers will report and, if the train is to stay in service, will advise their relief of.

But the real test will be what the OTMR says about the brake, which goes back to the first point in my edit. You would need to be pretty certain of yourself if you were going to try and use poor brakes as a mitigating factor, because if the OTMR shows you were perfectly fine on the brake leading up to the incident and then demonstrated poor technique or a late brake application they won't be inclined to pull the unit for inspection.

Either way, if the train was faulty in some way that contributed to the SOL incident the driver would almost certainly still have had to wear at least part of the blame.

O L Leigh

 

[TGV]

I am on board a train right now that has just failed to call! Scheduled to call at Huntingdon, St Neots, Biggleswade and Kings Cross, we approached Biggleswade waaaay too fast, an attempt at braking was made but too little too late and we sailed through Biggleswade and past all the waiting passengers at about 80-90mph. Driver makes sheepish statement but doesn't admit fault and apologises to the delay for any passengers wanting to get off at Biggleswade. Train is otherwise functioning fine. Some angry passengers at Biggleswade though I expect.

 

[CNX]

0726 Peterbrough-KX by the looks of things. A glance at the timetable would suggest that the driver misread the timetable, as the 0621, 0653, 0714 and 0758 Peterborough-KX services are non stop St. Neots-Stevenage, and that your driver probably thought your train, which doesn't call at Stevenage, didn't call at Biggleswade either. The futile late braking application tells its own story.

I doubt if this incident will get away without any media attention!

Driver, please explain. I bet he feels like a right April fool.

 

[Scotrail84]

Carter, The driver had a pure beamer!

Whats a pure beamer? is that west coast talk that us east coast folk dont get?? hehehe

 

[mickey]

The train may set back if the overun is no more than a quarter mile, it will not pass over an automatic level crossing, and crucially , with permission from the signalman.

Are EMUs and DMUs the same here? If pantographs have to be lowered and raised, for example, would the signalman still let him go back or would he have to continue to the next station?

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Are EMUs and DMUs the same here? If pantographs have to be lowered and raised, for example, would the signalman still let him go back or would he have to continue to the next station?

Why would pantographs need to be lowered and raised?

 

[Evvy73]

This happened to me a few years ago on my morning commute - I remember saying to my mate sat beside me as we approached Three Bridges at a fairly high speed, "Blimey, this guys not hanging around", at which point we sailed through the station much to the horror of the hundreds of commuters waiting on the platform. The driver then obviously realised his mistake put the anchors on and brought the train to a stop - after a couple of minutes wait, we slowly reversed in to the station, to which the guard as casual as you like calmly announced "Ladies and Gentlemen, the next station stop will be Three Bridges" as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened - cue quite a bit of giggling from the already packed train.

 

[mickey]

Why would pantographs need to be lowered and raised?

I don't know much about the science of electricity, but I always thought trains (and some trams, e.g. Metrolink) had two pantographs because one was for each direction of travel. Perhaps not though, although they do always switch at termini.

 

[driver9000]

I don't know much about the science of electricity, but I always thought trains (and some trams, e.g. Metrolink) had two pantographs because one was for each direction of travel. Perhaps not though, although they do always switch at termini.

Two pantographs seems to be a recent thing. Locomotives generally had one pantograph (excluding those that could run on different voltages) and most EMUs had a single pantograph for the train regardless of the direction it was travelling.

 

[ChrisCooper]

Some locos had two pantographs, one for each direction, but it was soon found that pantographs worked equally well both ways so later just one was used and the other removed. As has been said, some types have more than one pantograph for different voltages, usually a more heavy duty pantograph for low voltages (due to higher current) and a lighter weight and more streamlined one for higher voltage (and usually higher speeds). Still, many multi-voltage types use a single pantograph for different voltages, or perhaps two pantographs with one or both working on two or more voltages (e.g the Eurostars have a 25kV pan and a 3000v/1500v pan). Having one pantograph for each direction is a recent thing with long EMUs (including the likes of the TGV and APT) where due to power requirements, transformers are distributed along the unit, and each transformer will have it's own pantograph but only one will be raised at a time with the other transformer fed from a high voltage bus. Pantographs are normally switched when direction changes to even wear, although don't have to be and both pantographs can run equally well either way. The choice of leading or trailing pantograph is a funny subject. Aesthetically leading tends to be favoured, trailing means that an incident damaging the working pantograph is less likely to effect the "spair", but the former is unimportant and the latter is not really a big issue (the chances of it coming into play are pretty low). Shorter EMUs only have a single pantograph per unit, and when in multiple each unit will have it's pantograph raised (including things like TGVs and 395s where two of the 4 will be raised when running in multiple, one on each unit).

 

[Philip]

A few years back I was on the 17:50 from Manchester Pic to Barrow/Blackpool, it went through Salford Crescent despite being scheduled to stop there at 18:00. The driver carried on so we had to get off at Bolton and double back, the conductor apologised. It was before the new 2009 timetable but nonetheless still a TPE service so I guess his/her DTM wouldn't have been all that soft in the aftermath.

 

[Lawman]

Whats a pure beamer? is that west coast talk that us east coast folk dont get?? hehehe

awrite scotrail.. pure red neck ken?? lol

 

[CarterUSM]

Likesay, I'm the gadge that'll radge in a swedge, ken?

 

[TGV]

TGV's running as a single set on LGV will have only the rear 25kV Faiveley pan up. When 2 sets running as a pair, both sets will have their rear 25kV pan up. Except for Eurostar where at all times both power cars will have a pan raised (either AC Faiveley unit or DC BW unit) because there is no 25kV link between power cars.

 

[driverchris52]

I remember an occasion a number of years ago when amended Sunday diagrams, mine included, were missing stops at Hatton. It was only after a growing number of us had failed to stop there that the penny began to drop. It's great when your fireproof!