20/10/99
The Inevitable Ladbroke Grove Letter
F.A.O. RantBoard, Flatlands.
Another rail disaster, more inquiries, and still the right questions are not being asked. I have worked on the railway off and on for nearly 15 years, and I currently work as a signalman. This latest crash comes as no surprise to me, and I would confidently speculate that it has surprised very few people working on the railway.
I offer the following points for you
to consider, as I feel it is vital for journalists to ask more probing
questions concerning theworkings of the current railway system. Since privatisation,
much of the structure of the railway system has changed, and even those
who work in the industry find it difficult to understand. The system
is complex and seemingly lacking common sense; more significantly, there
is a grievous lack of measures in
place to ensure the health and safety of both passengers and railway workers.
Investigate just one or two of the
following and you won't be asking why the Ladbroke Grove accident occurred,
you will be wondering whythere haven't been more.
MODERN TRACK LAYOUT DESIGN
Our Victorian forefathers invented many ingenious fail-safe measures to ensure trains did not collide, even if signals were passed at danger. These have now, for the most part, been discarded.
1) Interlocking
One of the four basic principals of interlocking is 'to avoid conflicting movements'. If the signalling design and layout at signal 109 had adhered strictly to this principal, then the points ahead of signal 109 displaying a red aspect should have been set straight ahead, and NOT into the path of an oncoming express. This represents a fundamental flaw in the design of the signalling layout at this location UNLESS, of course, there was a fault with the signalling/interlocking on that day.
2) Trap Points
These used to be located at junctions
and exits from sidings. If a signal
was passed at danger the train would derail away from running
lines and NOT have a head on collision
with an oncoming train. A trap point
at signal 109 would have meant a minor derailment with probably
no loss of life. Why have these simple
but effective points been
discontinued?
3) Sand Drags
A similar principal to trap points, except that a sand drag is situated at the end of the dead route so as to stop or slow a run away/SPAD train and again avoid collision. One such sand drag is still located at Largin in Cornwall and has at least once prevented a head on collision. Why then are Railtrack planning on removing it?
4) Bi-directional Lines
There is a recent trend for designing track layouts that incorporate bi-directional lines, that is, lines that allows trains to run in both directions. This has the advantage of greater operational flexibility. However, until a points and signalling system is designed which is 100% fail-safe, and until human beings stop making any mistakes, bi-directional lines will be significantly more dangerous than those which only allow for train movement in one direction. The danger is increased in direct proportion to the speed at which trains are allowed to travel over the lines.
The use of bi-directional high speed
lines has been avoided for over a
hundred years. It isn't difficult to see why.
5) Flat Junctions
Along with bi-directional lines, there
is another cost-saving trend for
utilising flat junctions on high speed lines. Fly-over junctions,
of course, are far more expensive, but their expense is more
than justified by the fact that they eradicate the possibility
of head-on collision after SPAD's (Signal's
Passed at Danger) or
signal failure. Had there been
a fly-over junction at Ladbroke Grove when
the layout was remodelled there a few years ago, then this
accident wouldn't have happened.
OTHER IMPORTANT POINTS
1) Driver Training
Training a driver is expensive and
time consuming. Until recently, trainee
drivers spent a matter of years learning safety and emergency
procedures and acting as a 'secondman'
riding in the train cab with a driver
to gain hands-on experience. Train Operating Companies, in an
effort to save costs in both training
and what is now considered to
be the unproductive paid work of secondmen,
have produced a flood of 'mushroom
drivers', so called because they have 'popped up overnight'.
Nowadays a prospective driver taken off the street can be
driving a main line passenger train at 125mph in less than one
year.
Certainly the comprehensive procedures used for driver training in the past are not necessarily relevant for today's railway network; however there must be some kind of regulation concerning driver training, in particular how experienced a driver must be in order to take the controls of a high speed passenger train.
It does not seem very difficult to
make a direct connection between the
radical reduction in driver training and the dramatic increase in
SPADS in the past year.
2) Signalling
I have worked with electronic signalling
systems for years, and I can say
for a fact that none of them are perfect. Some systems have
intermittent failures that cannot be isolated
in order to repair, some are made
of a collection of different systems which were not designed
to work together and therefore fail on a regular basis, and
all possess their own individual glitches
which must be accommodated.
I have never worked at the Slough signalling
centre, which controls the
stretches of line at Ladbroke Grove as well as Southall and a
large percentage of the lines running
from central London to the West.
I do know that it would not win signalling centre of the year.
It is no more than a glorified portacabin
built by BR in the 80's as a
temporary structure. In a recent issue of their staff magazine,
Railtrack boasted that the building
(whose control room is, by the way,
about the size of a council house living room) had 'finally been
fitted with windows'. Aside from the excessively
grim working environment
this must be - even with the long-awaited windows - it is
difficult to believe that such a structure
houses the equipment and staff
controlling a sizeable portion of the signalling for the
Greater London Area. What state
must the structure be in if it was only
meant to last for a few years until a proper signalling centre
was built? That was over 10 years
ago! RAILTRACK'S PROFIT'S ARE £1.3 MILLION
POUNDS A DAY. Why are they boasting about replacing windows
rather than bulldozing it down for a new
proper centre? Why isn't anybody
talking about this?
3) The Infamous ATP
The much publicised Automated Train
Protection system is one way in which
crashes such as those at Southall and Ladbroke Grove could
possibly have been averted. ATP has proven
itself in mainland Europe to
be an effective preventative measure against drivers passing
signals at danger, but it is by no means
the only solution. There needs
to be consideration given to the many other possible options as
well as ATP. Railtrack do not want
to install ATP because the cost is increased
many fold by the fact that they will almost certainly have
to completely re-signal large areas of
the network.
5) Subsidies
Certainly any safety system should be chosen for its suitability and effectiveness rather than its cost, but it is undeniable that the Rail Industry will balk at footing the huge bill for ATP. It is easy to predict that such companies will turn to the government for subsidies or simply pass on the cost to the passenger.
Not enough is ever made of government
railway subsidies in the press. No
matter how many journalists have reported about these subsidies,
very few people seem to be aware that
the subsidies total more than the
entire cost of running the nationalised railway. As taxpayers,
we have paid far more for the current
privatised railway than we ever
did for British Rail. Why are the
government even considering footing
the cost? I would never claim that the rail network under BR
was a paradise of safety, but there can
be no denying that the railway
is inexorably declining in every area.
6) The Privatised Railway Culture
The railways were privatised for one
reason alone. To generate wealth.
In fact £1,097,000,000,000 pounds to date has been created
out of thin air, 19% of this as profit
to shareholders. It is a fallacy
to think you can run railways with concern to safety when the
very existence of these companies is to
return as large a profit as possible.
The two contradict each other - directly. Railtrack are now
far more likely to give a top job
to a post graduate accountant or economist
than a senior railwayman with years of hands-on experience.
There is a growing void between these
'hot-shots' and the operational work
force of the railway, along with a growing mutual contempt
between them. In order to try and forge
a culture change (Railtrack
called it 'Operation C-Change') they
have turned their back on the very
people who could have gotten them out of this mess. Therefore
you have a lucrative cash bonanza on one
hand and headless chickens exasperated
that they don't know how to run or manage the railway on the
other. Do Railtrack care? Probably only when incidents like this
may affect their share performance. Finally
I think it's worth
pointing out that staff morale is
at a dangerously low level on Railtrack.
Whereas most railway staff have seen their pay improve dramatically
under privatisation, this has not been so for Signallers.
Did you know that in Penzance a carriage cleaner earns more
than the Signalman who is responsible for hundreds of lives a
day?
Mark Harris
Virgin Day Out tickets are a great idea, but only if you travel from London. Whats wrong with travelling from Scotland to say Penrith ??? Sort it out please Balloon Man, (and I dont mean scrap Virgin Day Out!)
John O'Gaunt (actually residing in
WD1 - Watford, so I can
get Day Out tickets but I thought
I'd be non-descriminatory and support our Northern friends!)
David Warby
1A91 16.40 Penzance - Padd was cancelled
at Penzance due to staff sickness. Ran as 5A91 empty to Plymouth where
1A91 was re-scheduled to start. Passengers from Penzance - Plymouth watched
their HST speed through empty and were then advised to travel on Virgin's
17.12 Penzance - Manchester,passengers for Paddington told to change at
Plymouth.
On arrival at Plymouth the HST for 1A91 was waiting. Off goes the Penzance- Manchester into the evening and a train full of people board 1A91.
109 minutes later , FGW find a traincrew at last. This will get passengers into London at approx. 00.30, well after most tubes are gone. A journey time of almost 8 hours from Penzance to Pad. If they had been told to change at Bristol they could have reached Paddington by 23.04 - but they weren't!
Finally several engineering possessions on the Vale of Pewsey line had to be delayed to wait for the train.
Pathetic. For the cost in fines to Railtrack, FGW could employ many spare Senior Conductors for years over for it still to be economical.
Rail regulator, please note. And Wales & West - don't even get me started on that shower.
Captain Grey
15/08/99
Sirs,
I travel about on Virgin Trains every
day, as part of my 87 bashing duties and I can't but wonder how it is getting
very difficult to find a seat on notoriously 'empty' trains. Then it clicked.
With the onslaught of privatisation, ticket revenues were to be shared
out amongst ATOC members ie
London - Birmingham tickets to be
shared out between Silverlink, Virgin and Chiltern apportionate to the
percentage of trains run by that company out of the whole day's services,
UNLESS the TOC could provide it's own fare, in which case it would receive
100% of that ticket's revenue (Virgin Value). When good old Intercity was
in charge of real railways at the time, it's APEX fares etc only had a
small quota on every train. Now however as every one is out to take as
much money as possible, Virgin have deceided that the best way to do this
is to make sure that most of it's customers use their own fares, so no
other company gets a share of the revenue, thus nearly filling out it's
trains with bargain bucket fares. However as you have to pre-book seats
with these cheapo tickets nearly all trains are fully reserved, with the
exception of coach C which is the unreserved coach. However, by the time
I get on, this is full and most of the reserved seats have actually been
taken. It seems that Virgin are penalising me for daring to use a ticket
in which they don't get 100% of the revenue.
The fact that I pay more than the
people using cheap tickets is obviously irrelevant. This is what happens
when you let an egotistical maniac loose on a public service of which he's
had no experience and has been on a train for a total of 3 hrs since he
took over. Railways are a walk on service, always have been, always will
be, but obviously that inconvieniences Virgin too much. By the way if a
coach
has to be taken out of a set, guess
which one it is? Yup, it's coach C, meaning there is now no unreserved
seats on that train..... Also,has anyone noticed that since first class
started getting free food and drink,the prices in the buffet for scum like
us in standard class has risen sharply?
CJ
Lanchbery Lord president
P.S. Can anyone remember when RAIL
magazine was for rail enthusiasts with articles about trains and locos,instead
of full of junk like figures, interviews, bloody boring signalling articles
and Piers Dud-gen's personal traction preferences in the 'Fleet Review'
column. Leeds-Aberdeen train ran with out smoking coach on xxth July. WOW!
Remember what the magazine was called when it first came out? Rail ENTHUSIAST.
Buy Traction and Rail Express instead!
RE : NEW LIVERIES/NAMING'S
Dear RANT BOARD at FLATLANDS TRAINS WEB SITE,
Right! Now finally we've got a new locomotive livery to be proud of i.e. EWS Maroon & Gold, perhaps now we could hope to see some style with regards naming policy too.
In RAIL 296 there
was a picture of Dave Newton of nameplate manufacturers 'Newton Replica's'
holding a plate named 'OSPREY'. I got all excited, thinking that it had
perhaps been cast for a new EWS 58 or 60. Alas, I realised that it
was, in fact,
a replica of an old LNER A4's plate and my heart sunk. But what a great
idea don't you think......that stylish lettering as opposed to the bland
plates we've
seen ever since the early 80's. And what about some names like that too?
I know that if I were a manager of a rail linked business and I saw a name like 'Osprey' on a locomotive collecting wagons from my factory, I'd think it were a damn sight better than 'Resourceful' or whatever other nonsense the EWS acquired on it's 47's.
So come on EWS - let's see some uniformity in naming policy and a departure from the style of nameplate too!
Names like 'Viking', 'Osprey', 'Vale of Pewsey' and 'Meteor' inspire and evoke the romantic spirit of the railway. 'Respectful', 'Resourceful', 'Restrictive' or whatever it was, are all nonsense, don't mean anything to anyone and are rather like the old RES livery.......a complete waste of time!
Many thanks,
Mark Stent.
Dear Sir,
I am a newly
recruited guard for South West Trains of
four months.
I am writing
this letter because I think people should
know about the
situation on our newly privatised railway
and also because
I feel I need to get these things off my
chest. I do
not wish to drag up the now tired arguments
'for' or 'against'
privatisation and I shall endeavour to
stick to the
facts exactly as I have encountered them and
keep my points
of view to a minimum.
My training lasted
for seven weeks. This consisted of
going to SWT's
training college to learn Railtrack rules
and regulations
and having to sit written and oral exams
at the end of
this period. The standard of teaching was
very good but
the amount of information to take in was
awesome. I consider
myself to be of average intelligence
and do generally
pick things up quite easily, yet this
seemed an incredible
amount of information to have to
take in considering
the time given. Nevertheless, I
buckled down
to some hard work and achieved a good result
at the end of
the course.
I was quite dismayed
to find that everybody on my course
had passed.
Clearly several people were struggling and
they failed
to get anywhere near the pass mark in the
written exam,
yet were hauled through the oral to be
given a pass,
even though they told me that in the end
the instructors
were just telling them the answers to the
questions.
Before leaving
the college I was made to sign countless
pieces of paper
to say that I had read and understood the
rules and regulations,
and I was even made to sign every
piece of exam
paper with my instructors signature next to
mine. I was
also told that it cost SWT about £10,000 per
head to put
us through this course. I believe we were all
made to sign
everything so that if we were later involved
in any accidents
or incidents then SWT could possibly be
clear of any
blame and the onus of responsibility (and no
doubt financial
liability) would be on our individual
heads.
So with a less
than thorough knowledge of Railtrack rules
and regulations
it was now time for a half days first aid
course. This
was basically just taking it in turns to
give the kiss
of life to a rubber doll, so you can
imagine I was
more than a little surprised to receive a
certificate
at the end of the morning! This made me feel
very uneasy
as I hardly considered myself to have the
ability to do
anything but call an ambulance in an
emergency first
aid situation.
Next was four
weeks of 'route learning'. I was told by my
manager that
this was really an outdated thing for guards
to do and it
was really more for drivers, yet we had to
do it as they
'hadn't been able to change the rules and
regulations
regarding this yet'.
For this we were
given pocket timetables and a note book
and we just
had to travel on trains, learning the order
of stations,
which side the platforms were on etc. We
were also supposed
to note down platform numbers,
tunnels, level
crossings and details like that. Again, I
made a point
of learning these thoroughly and was
dismayed to
find that we were only tested very basically
on some routes
and not at all on others. This made a
mockery of working
hard, seeing as the trainee guards who
simply went
home when they were supposed to be route
learning all
passed with flying colours as well. Again
our signatures
were required next to our managers
signature for
every route we were supposedly 'passed'
for.
So now it was time to start work.
Due to there
being no uniforms available I had to work in
my own suit
and own shoes. All I was given was a tie and
two shirts even
though it quite clearly states in my
contract of
employment that I am to be given full
uniform. Because
it is a 'safety critical post' I am also
supposed to
be provided with adequate footwear.
The major problem
with the lack of uniform is obviously
that people
can't tell that you work for the railway. I
soon became
tired of passengers looking at me strangely
as I would climb
into the guards compartment of a
train.(Perhaps
they thought the 'commuter guards' scheme
had already
started!) Not only were the public confused
but my fellow
work-mates began to raise eyebrows too. I
lost count of
the awkward silences that would permeate
the staff room
as I walked in, railwayman not realising
that I wasn't
some lost passenger encroaching into their
private haven.
At the beginning
of a shift I pick up a schedule card
which details
all the workings I am to do for that shift.
This is basically
just extracts from the timetable
detailing only
the trains I am to work. The problem I
found straight
away was that there was no key to the
symbols on my
schedule card. So for example it would say
depart at 12v32,
yet I had no way of knowing what 'v'
meant. I asked
a fellow guard and he said just to 'ignore
all of that'.
When I asked my supervisor about finding
the key to these
symbols he said that I could find them
in a copy of
the 'working timetable', yet these were
'scarcer than
gold dust because SWT were trying to save
money'. (The
working timetable is a far more detailed
version of the
public timetable and is for the use of
staff - it is
a Railtrack publication) . To this day I
have never seen
a copy.
The next problem
with the schedule card was that wherever
the train split
into portions, the card did not tell me
which carriages
went where. How could I make any
announcements
or advise passengers which portion to
travel in for
their correct destination?
Because my schedule
card only lists stations on my
individual turn,
if I'm doing a Portsmouth train from
London as far
as Guildford then I don't have any details
of the train
between Guildford and Portsmouth and again
can't make any
announcements or advise passengers.
Finally, a couple
of times mine and the driver's schedule
cards have been
incorrect and we've either missed out
advertised stops
or stopped at stations where we
shouldn't have!
After two weeks it was time for my first night shift.
I arrived at
work to be told that I was to go to Clapham
Yard and pick
up my train from there. The problem is that
I hadn't signed
for the yard at Clapham during my route
learning and
had never been there before. My supervisor
told me not
to worry and just go along anyway. I tried to
complain but
he got angry. He told me to tell the driver
when I got there
and he would assume all responsibility
should anything
happen. I felt very uneasy about this but
went on my way.
On arrival at the yard I saw no sign
of my driver
and seeing as I hadn't been shown the yard,
had no way of
knowing which train was mine. I asked a
driver in another
train but he said that he worked for
another company
and had no idea what I was talking about.
I put on my
high visibility vest and stepped down off the
relative safety
of the platform and into the darkness of
the yard. I
decided that the best thing to do was to just
walk over to
each train and ask each driver. On my way I
was absolutely
horrified to slip over onto my back,
narrowly missing
the live electric conductor rail. It had
been raining
and due to my still having to wear my own
footwear this
had been grossly inappropriate and totally
unfit for walking
on oily, wet ballast and sleepers. I
got up literally
shaking with fear and eventually found
my train.
On another night
I went to Guildford, arriving there at
about one o'
clock in the morning. I hadn't been shown
where any staff
rooms were but I had been told by another
guard that there
was a staff room here. It began to rain
hard again and
I eventually found the staff room only to
find that it
had a combination lock on it. I hadn't been
told any of
the combination lock numbers in my training.
There was no
one about and after knocking on the door for
about ten minutes
I realised there was nobody inside
either. I spent
the next four hours outside in the
freezing rain
until somebody arrived.
In my short time
of working for SWT I've had at least
three instances
where the signalman has routed my train
the wrong way.
Surely this is not safe! Perhaps it has
always happened
so often - perhaps I've simply been
unlucky. I don't
know.
Once, after my
train had failed, I was ordered to ride
with the driver
to the depot. We limped most of the way
and on reaching
the four track main line we were both
surprised to
see that we had been routed onto the fast
line. On we
went limping at 20 mph and on reaching the
point where
the points should have been set for our turn
into the depot
we found a green signal with no route
indicator to
tell us we would have been turning off the
main line. My
angry driver radioed the signal box only to
be told that
we were supposed to be going to Waterloo as
our train was
to form the replacement for the failed
train. 'We are
the failed train!' roared my driver. With
that the route
was promptly changed and we finally
arrived at the
depot but not without causing a
considerable
delay to main line and suburban services due
to the mistake.
In the subsequent furore afterwards the
Railtrack signaller
blamed SWT's Control and SWT blamed
the Railtrack
Control.
Either way, this
is by no means uncommon. The present
system seems
totally unable to cope with anything 'out of
course' like
an additional train such as ours that is not
timetabled without
at least a weeks notice. I suspect
this partly
must be to do with the fact that there are
two different
'control centres'(i.e. SWT and Railtrack)
having to make
decisions and that the more links in the
communication
chain, inevitably lead to more
misunderstandings.
The actual employer/employee
relations are deeply
depressed at
SWT. I don't think I've ever worked in a
place where
morale has been so low. I have been late a
couple of times
due to my train into work being late.
This is also
a SWT service yet my pay has been docked
just because
their own services were running late! I feel
that I have
tried to do my up most for the company; work
hard, be conscientious,
be helpful to passengers - yet I
feel at every
turn I am being taken advantage of and put
at risk. I am
never rewarded for good work; the only time
I ever see my
manager is if he is checking up to see we
are all making
announcements. I know there will be people
reading this
who think 'Well why didn't he go to his
union' but the
problem is that when you are new you are
on a six month
probationary period. If you get known as
someone who
rocks the boat then you won't get taken on.
The time when
you most need assistance is when it's least
advisable to
take it!
I realise that
some of these points in this letter raise
serious safety
issues and I have not put pen to paper
lightly. Sure
too, there is some resentment and
bitterness with
the way not just I, but all of my
colleagues have
been treated. But my main reason in
writing is for
the concern and safety, not just obviously
for passengers,
but for other new guards as well. With
little experience
of railway practices before hand I feel
that we have
been lead blind into many situations on the
railway.
When I left training
my instructor said that I had done
well and that
as long as I kept my nose clean then I
should have
a bright future ahead of me on the railway.
After four months
of work at SWT I feel that is no longer
what I would
want.
Yours Sincerely,
GUARD X
I wish to remain anonymous but can be contacted via the website e-mail.
I would be extremely
interested in any replies and
feedback.
RE
: CHOCOLATE & CREAM MK1'S
I was most amused
to read in Howard Jonston's article
about Crewe's
new carriage shed.'The chocolate and cream
coach at one
end of the train is a clear demonstration of
the new hire-in
policy, and for some obscure reason this
vehicle is often
the most heavily loaded!'
Well what a surprise.
Hasn't it clicked with rail
managers and
decision makers yet that this is what your
average leisure
traveller wants? People in this country
seem obsessed
with the idea that 'new' is 'better' and
vice versa.
Yet, looking around the railways of Britain,
I simply don't
see any examples where this is reality.
A good example
is seen on the North Wales coast itself.
Even the Mk
2's in service are 'heritage' by Sprinter
standards, yet
I don't know anybody who thinks that these
coaches are
superior to the quality of a Mk 1. So why
were they kept
in service over the majority of Mk 1's?
Simple - because
they weren't as old!
A perfect example of the 'new' is 'better' mentality.
Give me an old
chocolate and cream Mk 1 any day over a
horrible turquoise
or whatever (the livery of Regional
Railway's is
so incredibly non-descript that I can't
actually remember)
Sprinter - rancid pieces of Lego, the
lot of them!!
And I talk now
from the point of view of a rail customer
and not of an
over-obsessive enthusiast yearning for days
gone by.
I know that there
is also an element of cost in all of
this, but how
much more does it cost to maintain a Mk1
over a Mk 2
pressure-vent? Surely not that much. And OK,
your new generation
of multiple units are a lot cheaper
to build and
run than loco hauled coaches, but I know
many people
who travel by car, rather than travel by
trains which
simply do not respect one's personal space.
Short sighted policies abound, don't you think?
Might I suggest
that South Wales & West bother to hire a
spare rake of
Mk 1's this summer to try and alleviate the
stress of travelling
at peak times between Exeter and
Paignton. The
sprinters that operate these services are
like zoo's!
You can't breathe when it's at it's worst.
You could quite
easily create a diagram that runs as a
relief to present
services between Paignton, Exeter and
Bristol and
vice-versa.
Perhaps if this
was done, then massive fare increases
could be avoided
as a deterrent to people travelling at
peak times.
Jon Swiftsure
Exeter
Dear Rail Magazine/Open Access,
Awards, awards,
more awards, personal tastes, private
jokes.........
Has it never
occurred to you that your average 'RAIL'
reader isn't
that interested in which nail varnish one of
your office
girls prefers, or whatever it is you choose
to tell us about
the 'RAIL' staff this week.
O.K.- so you
won an award, but what we want is news, more
news, articles,
features and trains...lots of them. It's
annoying to
have your narcissism rammed down our throats.
Get a handle
on your ego's and get back in touch with
reality. Or
as they say in the States, 'wake up and smell
the diesel!'.
A. N. Other
p.s. Bet you don't print this one!