Scottish rail services affected by weather 10/12/14

[ushawk]

As one of the complainers - my point is about where do we draw the line. If there is any chance of trees coming down (i.e. every winter - when it is windy) are we going to cancell ALL services North of inverness. No we mitigate by doing appropriate tree curtting near the line (just as has been done for decades and more). What about any chance of a landslide (good luck with that one)....

As happened yesterday - a Westerley Gale forecast - but a very early decisison taken based upon innacurate information as to the severity - led to compelte and unnecessary cancellation of ALL services - when the East of the North Highlands was pretty much unnaffected. A normal windy day in the Highlands was encountered - just like we probably have for 20 days per winter.

Canw e expect ALL services to be cancelled on 20 winter storm days in Scotland then.......what about if it snows, it may get a bit slippy.....

Sorry - yesterday was clearly an overreaction - I do hope they learn and swing back to assessing risk a bit more effectively.

Id say your reaction is an "overreaction" if anything.....I think we understood your opinion the first time.

Question, what if a tree was to have came down in front of a packed service travelling at 60mph which would possibly cause it to derail which would most probably result in serious injury or death - would it still be an overreaction ? Just because the railway pretty much escaped unscathed - it doesnt make it an "overreaction".

Perhaps Scotrail should have said "we will run a full service, we know there is a good chance trees and overhead wires could come down, but its wrong to care about the safety of passengers and staff.

 

[Chris125]

You can't honestly tell me that a couple of Sprinters are more difficult to run than freights pulling (what RTT claims are) 400/600t respectively?

If nothing else a trainload of passengers is a lot harder to deal with should a service become stuck in a remote location.

Chris

 

[mikey9]

Sorry ushawk - you seem to feel you speak for everyone on here.

I think it is fair for me to post on this subject - as one who was effected, and as I talk to many others also affected I am pretty sure I don't have an extraordinary view on this.

Again - you seem (deliberately?) to miss the point I am making about the risk vs action - but clearly you don't agree so no point labouring this.

As we are the some of the hundreds (yeah - not many on a central belt scale I know - but it is important to us who suffer a pretty scetchy service at the best of times) who get significantly inconvenienced by the removal of all services - it is important NOT overreact when winter sets in.

In recent years such over-reaction has become the norm on the roads and weather bulletins ("....don't travel unless your journey is necessary etc....") as soon as a bit of snow falls.

I just hope this isn't the way of the future on the railway.

(60mph...hmmm - the Wick service typically averages 37mph over the full journey making the amount of 60mph running a little limited and as for OHLE - this is in - and will remain in pretty limited supply on the lines I refer to.)

 

[Hyphen]

Look at how long the first one took between Garelochead and Craigendoran!

I presumed that was a sign of it awaiting its path off the West Highland section, onto the busier lines

 

[ER158715]

Sorry ushawk - you seem to feel you speak for everyone on here.

I think it is fair for me to post on this subject - as one who was effected, and as I talk to many others also affected I am pretty sure I don't have an extraordinary view on this.

Again - you seem (deliberately?) to miss the point I am making about the risk vs action - but clearly you don't agree so no point labouring this.

As we are the some of the hundreds (yeah - not many on a central belt scale I know - but it is important to us who suffer a pretty scetchy service at the best of times) who get significantly inconvenienced by the removal of all services - it is important NOT overreact when winter sets in.

In recent years such over-reaction has become the norm on the roads and weather bulletins ("....don't travel unless your journey is necessary etc....") as soon as a bit of snow falls.

I just hope this isn't the way of the future on the railway.

(60mph...hmmm - the Wick service typically averages 37mph over the full journey making the amount of 60mph running a little limited and as for OHLE - this is in - and will remain in pretty limited supply on the lines I refer to.)

It might average 37mph but there are line speeds of 90mph plus the fact a 158 hardly stops on a sixpence.
If a set gets damaged by hitting an object, then it's out of service for repair and as there isn't a surplus of units lying around, then services will get cancelled.
It's a case of damned if they do, damned if they don't. Just remember that the main factor for the railway is safety. As someone else said earlier, better than having a trainload of passengers and staff marooned in the middle of nowhere.


http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/Train-hits-tree-at-Clachnaharry-13122011.htm

 

[cjt0131]

I have been very surprised and to be honest shocked to read some of the comments

I for one have never been scotrail's greatest fans but I honestly believe that the decision taken by them to curtail many of their services due to the serious threat posed by extreme weather was the correct one

one often finds that those who complain about these things are very often the first to complain if a service runs in bad weather and is then involved in an incident or delayed

yes often rail continues to operate when others have ground to a halt and I have no reason to believe that that will not continue to be the case

scotrail made a decision and I am of many who back them 100% for doing so in an attempt to make our travel as safe as it possibly can be

 

[mikey9]

one often finds that those who complain about these things are very often the first to complain if a service runs in bad weather and is then involved in an incident or delayed

scotrail made a decision and I am of many who back them 100% for doing so in an attempt to make our travel as safe as it possibly can be

Am afraid I don't fall into this group - as a rail observer for 35 years and regular traveller, commuter and supporter of the railways - I recognise the limitations of running services - and fully support staff and service providers when they are hit with unfortunate circumstances and have to manage around them.

This wasn't the case last week - they reacted to overly pessimistic forecasting (the weather here was far worse over Sat/Sunday with bigger gust and very heavy rain - but no cancelled services) - treated a massively geographically spread set of lines (Inverness to Kyle and Inverness to Wick/Thurso as a single block.

My comments are based around living here, experiencing the weather, using the services and having a pretty good understanding of their provision. I do wonder if some commenters (perhaps from afar....?) just think Scotland is a single railway with the same weather applying across from West to East and North to South, the same approach that Scotrail appear to have taken to the Northern lines last week.
Easy decision to defend when you throw the "safety" card about - however "making our travel as safe as it is possible to be" ends with not running trains at all - especially in winter - a position East Coast used a few winters ago with the Highland Chieftan (terminating at Perth repeatedly whilst Scotrail ran their services over Drummochter with minimal problems.

Bring back the Scotrail management making decisions then please.

 

[cjt0131]

I am certainly no a poster from "afar "

I have travelled extensively to all parts of Scotland by road rail ferry and plane through some quite extreme conditions

making the decision to cancel services is not taken lightly

these sort of decisions are not made that often and I feel we just have to accept that they were made with the best of intentions

 

[mikey9]

I agree ctj - "made with the best of intentions" - just hope they recognise and filter out the hysterical Mainstream Media reactions to a risk of winter weather in future

 

[PG]

Just came across this item on the BBC News site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-30576434

Have to say that's a serious amount of water on the line
Wonder how waterproof the underfloor equipment is on a 156??

 

[GodAtum]

wow looks like the driver will have wet feet! I wonder if the passengers could climb into the overhead racks to avoid the water?

 

[PG]

This is also being discussed on this thread now, so maybe the MODS could join together if they feel it would be appropriate?