Apparently, the new non-slip coating applied to the platforms at City Thameslink suddenly became slippery when snow & water from passengers' footwear was liberally spread over it. Who could have foreseen that passengers might enter the station with wet shoes?
Last year we were told by FCC that the doors on the 319 units iced up because:
a) it was cold
b) some numpty ran the units through the washer
c) it was the wrong type of snow
d) it was the wrong type of cold
e) all of the above
We were assured that they had now changed their maintenance procedures and invested in better de-icing chemicals so the problems wouldn't happen again. Oh dear, its happened again.
Their only solution seems to be to close stations and stop running trains, which for a train operator seems to me to be missing the point a bit.
Now I feel sorry for the lady who fell over at about 8.00 am this morning, but why does the inability of one passenger to select appropriate footwear for the inclement conditions make it OK for FCC to close City for the whole day, when Blackfriars is already closed for upgrading and Farringdon is woefully inadequate? Have they not heard of mops, or would that require additional technical training for the staff?
I've seen the pictures of the ice on the doors and the couplers. The simple solution is to run the service using only eight car sets (2x 319 or 2x 377), that way they don't have to worry about the end couplers freezing as the units can stay coupled all day. The iced doors is a bit more tricky, but surely not all the doors on an eight car unit can be frozen at the same time. If FCC employed more platform staff they could be engaged in ad-hoc de-icing at the appropriate moment, but I'm sure Mr Crow and his ilk would find a way of preventing that on the grounds of demarcation or elf 'n safety or something similar.
