This same clip cropped up here on a thread a while back. These people are certainly idiots, but to their slight credit their intentions did appear to be merely making a stupid announcement rather than interfering with the train doors or suchlike. Not that I condone their actions, and I would certainly hope the BTP would have arrested them rather than simply letting them off. The inevitable train/plane comparison seems apt here; what punishment would one expect if found to be using an illegitimate key of some type to access secure equipment on a passenger aircraft mid-flight? Rather more severe I would imagine :roll:
I totally agree with the comments regarding carriage keys ('T keys'), which are now well and truly in circulation amongst people who shouldn't have them, and can no longer be considered to offer the required level of security. It might be relatively uncommon for people who shouldn't have them to use them, but it does happen, and it shouldn't happen at all. I've known of Guards returning to the rear cab to find their kit bags missing, despite the door being locked upon their return. I know of a colleague who had a couple of herberts who decided to release all the train doors so that they could escape whilst the service was being held outside a station for the police to arrive. And as we all appreciate, one doesn't even need the key itself in many cases, there are plenty of other 'tools' which will suffice. It's a worry that somebody could quite easily gain access to the cab of a train in service, travelling at speed. TOC's need to develop a new, secure key, and then stop handing them out like sweets! In the past 6 months or so I've found several T keys, one in a luggage rack on a unit in service and one sitting on the stairs at Bristol TM! I'm glad I stumbled accross them before anybody else who might have picked them up. I'd happily accept a new set of keys with a replacement charge of 50 or 60 quid, if it meant the trains I worked were actually secure.
