merlodlliw
Established Member
This is taken from The North Wales Rail Website today,I dont think it as been posted in the forums
Train in trouble
The DMU problems on the Shrewsbury - Wolverhampton line on 9 May were described by a passenger on the train beind the failure, writing in the Shropshire Star newspaper
This is what happened to the 15:30 Aberystwyth to Birmingham service soon after it left Shrewsbury at 17:31 on Saturday evening. A few miles down the line the brakes jammed on and everything stopped. Passengers on that train were stranded for hours and with them, the passengers on my train, just behind it.
The failed train was an Arriva one. The Arriva train driver called Arriva control to tell them the problem.
Their first response is to tell the driver of that train to see what he can do. But the brakes remain locked on. So what about a second solution? Maybe our London Midland train can push the Arriva one. But there are two difficulties. The first is technical – will the couplings fit? The second is financial - will Arriva be prepared to pay for the push?
It takes until about seven o’clock to get agreement that they will and our train can push theirs. We’re over an hour in now, but the ordeal is only beginning. As soon as the trains link the Arriva fault is transferred to ours and its brakes jam. Worse, they now cannot get the trains uncoupled. It takes almost another two hours of attempts which include stopping the trains on the other line so that our drivers can safely crawl underneath before we are freed.
Unfortunately the Arriva train is still stuck fast and its passengers are left stranded as we begin to go backwards to Shrewsbury. Our guard throughout is calm and helpful and as we crawl to Shrewsbury he collects our details and tells us that station staff will be waiting in the forecourt with taxis. Experience suggests it may not be this easy and it is not. At 21.00 - three and a quarter hours after leaving Shrewsbury - we arrive back and there are no station staff and no taxis waiting.
Fortunately there is a duty manager who is surprised to see us because Shrewsbury is an Arriva station and although he had ordered a bus for the Arriva passengers, if they ever got back, he knew nothing about us because we were London Midland passengers and their control had not told his control. Neil, the Arriva employee, is a model of calm. He rings London Midland who seem confused but twenty minutes later they are back on the phone and give him permission to get us taxis to take us either home or to Wolverhampton and Birmingham. By now it's 21.30.
You would think, said another passenger to my wife, that after being stuck for over three hours they would a least give us some water. But she too wasn’t thinking straight. There is a refreshment room on Shrewsbury station. But don’t be silly. First, it was closed and second, even if Neil had the keys, it’s owned by the Lemon Tree ... one of over 400 outlets owned by SSP UK Rail Ltd, which include the Upper Crust, M & S Simply Food rail outlets and Victoria Wine and Threshers outlets. So taking water from them would have been a simple act of theft.
So, parched and frustrated we were eventually on our way, squashed into a taxi. But not just any taxi. We had to wait for one from the right contracted firm. We finally arrive home at Shifnal at 22.00, four and quarter hours after we first left Shrewsbury. But if you think this was bad spare a thought for the Arriva passengers and Neil having to deal with them. And spare a thought too for the passengers with onward connections. We don’t know what happened to the London-bound group. Hopefully they got the last train to London from Birmingham. But if they did and wanted to go further their problems were not at an end...
Our only comment: someone at Shrewsbury could perhaps have gone up the road and bought some water. We wonder what did eventually happen to the Arriva passengers.
And they want to run these clapped out 158s to London.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
www.nwrail.org.uk newspages
Train in trouble
The DMU problems on the Shrewsbury - Wolverhampton line on 9 May were described by a passenger on the train beind the failure, writing in the Shropshire Star newspaper
This is what happened to the 15:30 Aberystwyth to Birmingham service soon after it left Shrewsbury at 17:31 on Saturday evening. A few miles down the line the brakes jammed on and everything stopped. Passengers on that train were stranded for hours and with them, the passengers on my train, just behind it.
The failed train was an Arriva one. The Arriva train driver called Arriva control to tell them the problem.
Their first response is to tell the driver of that train to see what he can do. But the brakes remain locked on. So what about a second solution? Maybe our London Midland train can push the Arriva one. But there are two difficulties. The first is technical – will the couplings fit? The second is financial - will Arriva be prepared to pay for the push?
It takes until about seven o’clock to get agreement that they will and our train can push theirs. We’re over an hour in now, but the ordeal is only beginning. As soon as the trains link the Arriva fault is transferred to ours and its brakes jam. Worse, they now cannot get the trains uncoupled. It takes almost another two hours of attempts which include stopping the trains on the other line so that our drivers can safely crawl underneath before we are freed.
Unfortunately the Arriva train is still stuck fast and its passengers are left stranded as we begin to go backwards to Shrewsbury. Our guard throughout is calm and helpful and as we crawl to Shrewsbury he collects our details and tells us that station staff will be waiting in the forecourt with taxis. Experience suggests it may not be this easy and it is not. At 21.00 - three and a quarter hours after leaving Shrewsbury - we arrive back and there are no station staff and no taxis waiting.
Fortunately there is a duty manager who is surprised to see us because Shrewsbury is an Arriva station and although he had ordered a bus for the Arriva passengers, if they ever got back, he knew nothing about us because we were London Midland passengers and their control had not told his control. Neil, the Arriva employee, is a model of calm. He rings London Midland who seem confused but twenty minutes later they are back on the phone and give him permission to get us taxis to take us either home or to Wolverhampton and Birmingham. By now it's 21.30.
You would think, said another passenger to my wife, that after being stuck for over three hours they would a least give us some water. But she too wasn’t thinking straight. There is a refreshment room on Shrewsbury station. But don’t be silly. First, it was closed and second, even if Neil had the keys, it’s owned by the Lemon Tree ... one of over 400 outlets owned by SSP UK Rail Ltd, which include the Upper Crust, M & S Simply Food rail outlets and Victoria Wine and Threshers outlets. So taking water from them would have been a simple act of theft.
So, parched and frustrated we were eventually on our way, squashed into a taxi. But not just any taxi. We had to wait for one from the right contracted firm. We finally arrive home at Shifnal at 22.00, four and quarter hours after we first left Shrewsbury. But if you think this was bad spare a thought for the Arriva passengers and Neil having to deal with them. And spare a thought too for the passengers with onward connections. We don’t know what happened to the London-bound group. Hopefully they got the last train to London from Birmingham. But if they did and wanted to go further their problems were not at an end...
Our only comment: someone at Shrewsbury could perhaps have gone up the road and bought some water. We wonder what did eventually happen to the Arriva passengers.
And they want to run these clapped out 158s to London.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
www.nwrail.org.uk newspages
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