Misbehaviour at Lancing

[Hassocks5489]

Does anybody know what happened on the West Coastway this morning? Eastbound chaos when I arrived at Hove just after 0800, although westbound was fine; apparently there was a disturbance on a train at Lancing, and police were called. Sure enough, as we passed through Lancing at 0815 there was a train stopped in the Up platform with lots of passengers, police etc. milling around, and trains stacking up behind it to Worthing and (?) beyond. Disturbances on trains aren't uncommon, of course, but at 8am I was a bit surprised...! Ta.

 

[user15681]

I believe, unfortunately, a guard was assaulted on the train. Hope the guard is okay.

 

[Hassocks5489]

Nasty; hope those responsible will be punished (it looked like police had managed to intercept and deal with it, happily).

 

[tsr]

I believe, unfortunately, a guard was assaulted on the train. Hope the guard is okay.

That is unfortunately correct. The assault had to be dealt with & alarm systems had to be reset before the train involved could be moved.

 

[Southern313]

I know the guard involved and he is ok now minus the facial injuries received. He intervened as a passenger was being harassed by another who then turned on the guard.

Person in question was detained by police and will hopefully get a decent punishment for his actions!

 

[sarahj]

Thoughts from Brighton guards to a Barnham Brother. Hope he is fine.
There was nothing west from Brighton for a while as there was nothing coming in. My Brighton to Southampton at 8.33 was the unit involved, brought in by a manager. Was a bit busy, had to back cab it to Worthing.

 

[Class377/5]

I know the guard involved and he is ok now minus the facial injuries received. He intervened as a passenger was being harassed by another who then turned on the guard.

Person in question was detained by police and will hopefully get a decent punishment for his actions!

Sickening that people feel the need to do that. Well done for the guard for doing it and hope he's able to put it behind him.

 

[B&W]

My future daughter in law was on this train. She and all the other passengers were getting quite concerned as to what was happening after 15mins as no audible/understandable communications were heard in her part of the train and they could see Southern staff running backwards and forwards on the platform. Once the poor staff member was seen with blood running from his nose by them, they put two and two together and assumed the chap had been assaulted or the train had run over someone. A member of staff did come through the train before it left to confirm it was an assault.
She and all the other passengers were quite upset for the staff member who had been assaulted and she hopes he will soon be ok.
She does make the comment though she understands someone did try to make an annoucement over the PA but apparently you can never understand the PA on these trains and she and people around her were getting quite worried.
She does say she hates these trains, you are never able to understand the PA, they have no toilets, the seats are not fit for a dog let alone humans. So she will be ditching travelling by train as soon as she can which is a pity as there will another one soon going to work by the already congested A27. Apparently it has three coaches so must be one of those cast off 313s.

Brian

 

[Carlisle]

In my experience I would not go that far on criticising the 313s, yes I agree it's very annoying they have no toilets but they are fairly recently re furnished and seats whilst not great are usually clean and you could be unfortunate enough to get a faulty PA on many different types of train :roll:

 

[Hassocks5489]

It was a 377 today (in fact I think that service always operates with a 377, because it goes on to form a Southampton service on the return journey as Sarahj says above and 313s aren't used on Southampton services, IIRC). It certainly looked busy, and I know there are always lots of people waiting for it at Shoreham and stations closer to Brighton.

 

[Class377/5]

It was a 377 today (in fact I think that service always operates with a 377, because it goes on to form a Southampton service on the return journey as Sarahj says above and 313s aren't used on Southampton services, IIRC). It certainly looked busy, and I know there are always lots of people waiting for it at Shoreham and stations closer to Brighton.

313s can be used on Southampton's. Its rare but has happened.

 

[jopsuk]

aye, often PA faults on new stock such as 379s. And with the guard incapacitated, the driver may have been in the dark about what was oing on- what useful information could he give on the PA?

 

[GatwickDepress]

Hope the guard recovers fully and quickly, and the passenger is prosecuted as severely as possible.

She does say she hates these trains, you are never able to understand the PA, they have no toilets, the seats are not fit for a dog let alone humans. Apparently it has three coaches so must be one of those cast off 313s.

Or a 377/3 late on a Friday night.

 

[B&W]

D in L probably does not want to use toilet on every trip so must have had a 313 when she did. I know she returns home on a 313 as I sometimes collect her from the station. If its a 377 normally I can also understand the gripe about PA and seats, I gave up using Southern because its so uncomfortable to travel more than 30 mins on these and I found the 377s PAs a bit hit and miss when 'live' announcements were made on the day. On the day the garbled message could also be due staff understandably being upset over the incident as well.

I assume staff getting assaulted must be rare thank goodness, its a sad reflection of our times that she and other passengers first assumed the train had hit a person and the staff member had gone to assist hence was covered in blood.


Brian

 

[reb0118]

Thoughts to the guard from a fellow guard in Scotland. Unfortunately not an isolated incident I received a text alert this morning at 07:11:-

LIN to EDB on your route: 07:10 will be delayed by about 14 minutes - disruptive passsengers

Just goes to show this type of behaviour can occur at any time and any place.

Once again, thought to the guard concerned down south. Get well soon mate.

 

[CockneySparrow]

aye, often PA faults on new stock such as 379s. And with the guard incapacitated, the driver may have been in the dark about what was oing on- what useful information could he give on the PA?

Not only that but you have to be careful these days on what you say, not only does it become a police matter and possible court action maybe required you have to stay quiet

Also if the driver would have said something one of the other passengers might have got involved in the guards defence like the "big fella" in Scotland, this could of then have led to another passenger getting hit accidently while the big fella was sorting the other chap out

 

[Carlisle]

Yes I remember the no nonsense 'big fella,' lol guess he can name his price for night security type work after achieving such fame

 

[185]

Lucky it was down there. If it was FTPE the guard would have been suspended for assaulting the passenger's fist with his face.

 

[High Dyke]

I know the guard involved and he is ok now minus the facial injuries received. He intervened as a passenger was being harassed by another who then turned on the guard.

Person in question was detained by police and will hopefully get a decent punishment for his actions!

Firstly i hope the guard has a speedy recovery from the ordeal. Suffering an assault can't be a pleasant experience. My wife (a guard) was sexually assaulted by a passenger two years ago. Whilst the courts did mete out punishment it can be the emotional scars left that cause problems. Hopefully justice will be done in this case.

...Disturbances on trains aren't uncommon, of course, but at 8am I was a bit surprised...! Ta.

I note that a passenger disturbance took place this morning at Grantham. A drunk refusing to leave the train. The time...6:30am

 

[Central Trains]

Lucky it was down there. If it was FTPE the guard would have been suspended for assaulting the passenger's fist with his face.

Ive heard FTPE wont seem to support their staff and like sacking people!

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Ive heard FTPE wont seem to support their staff and like sacking people!

So many people have regretted leaving one TOC and going to FTPE its made me realise sometimes the grass certainly isn't greener.

 

[mr williams]

A few months back I caught a Temple Meads - Cardiff train which had originated in Portsmouth/Southampton and the carriage I entered looked as if a food fight had broken out. At least eight soaked seats, tables swimming in lager/cider and junk everywhere. An exasperated guard told me that a group of youths had had to be removed by the police at Westbury at just after 8 in the morning.

I remember being told years ago that as you get older you become more right-wing and less tolerant......no comment!

 

[hassaanhc]

Oh dear, hope the guard recovers.

As for lack of announcements, maybe it is sometimes better to deal with an issue first and give information later? The other day I was on a DLR train that came to an abrupt stop between Royal Albert and Prince Regent. After a couple of minutes it moved off in "manual" to the next station (with 3 loud bangs at various occasions) where it was taken out of service, and this was when the guard made the only announcement since it came to a stop.