Route Learning A New Platform

[dmacw]

Not sure if this is the right area for such a question.

Obviously drivers and guards have to learn a route before operating on it on their own. A new platform has opened at Reading station recently. (platform 4) Now, would all train crew have to learn this new platform first, or would they just get a notice about it?

 

[GB]

I imagine they would get a train crew brief and walkaround.

 

[driver9000]

Relatively minor changes such as a new platform would, in my experience be dealt with in a brief to crews along with the company route maps and sectional appendix being updated accordingly. Major changes would be dealt with in a notice often known as a yellow peril (signalling alterations notice).

 

[swt_passenger]

In the case of something like the new P4 at Reading, all the train crew will have been watching it develop for the last 9 months as well, and especially from the perspective of a driver it will have been pretty obvious how the layout would work for some months now, so it isn't as though anything is unexpected.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

We got a brief and maps (informally known as a "yellow peril") about the new platforms at Moor Street when they opened last year. Ditto for Marylebone when that got new platforms in '06. For large resignalling projects we tend to get DVDs which have been digitally altered to show the position of new signals or have CGI simulations for new routes such as junctions or through roads.

 

[MggW]

The Reading work in readiness for Crossrail has involved a lot more than a simple platform, with track and signalling work at eslewhere including Acton.

NR issued a yellow peril and briefing for this work.

 

[The Planner]

I have no doubt the TOCs would have put a claim in for learning the new platform regardless of what was really needed under the Network Change arrangements.

 

[wensley]

Recent signalling changes to York Platform 9/10 including re-positioning of the Down Starting Signals and installations of Banner Repeater Signals for Down trains. I did have to laugh at one guard frantically looking for the old "OFF" indicator only to turn and see a dirty great green aspect ... oops

 

[Cherry_Picker]

I have no doubt the TOC's train crew will have insisted on a day's training for learning the new platform regardless of what was really needed too. These things happen in a world with litigation.

 

[Smudger105e]

I have no doubt the TOC's train crew will have insisted on a day's training for learning the new platform regardless of what was really needed too. These things happen in a world with litigation.

I'm not sure the Train Crew are in any poisition to insist on this. Surely the Trades Unions (largely ASLE&F but also RMT) would liaise with the TOCs and come to agreement regarding training requirements? A simple platform introduction would not need more than a short brief IMHO.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

ASLEF (and RMT) are train crew though. We can ask our representatives to negotiate adequate training for the new infrastructure were are expected to work over. It can be incorporated into existing rostered safety briefs or a new brief can be created which train crew may need to be released from their booked duties in order to attend. So yes, we are in a position to insist on it.

 

[O L Leigh]

We've just had P7 & 8 open at Cambridge. We were issued with a Yellow Peril and signalling diagrams and offered a payment in compensation for familiarisation of the changes in our own time. There was an option to go down an see for ourselves, but these had to be requested and meant forfeiting the payment.

Learning the new platforms also requires familiarisation with the new signal indications, stop board locations and shunt moves. At Cambridge it also covered the alterations to the Reception Roads.

O L Leigh