Train driver forgot to make stop (BBC News)
 

Train operator First Great Western apologises to passengers after a train driver forgot to stop at Didcot Parkway.

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Mistakes happen, I think its a bit harsh being made public to the BBC, hope the driver is OK and does not get treated to harshly by his bosses, I suspect they will throw this report back at him!

was didcots population on this train who told bbc news seems a lot passinger for didcot

Well it is classed as a safety of the line incident. Nobody is quite sure why apparently since a SPAD is not involved.

Exactly Wyvern, seems a bit weird that this has made the press in this way

You know, I do this on Rail Simulator all the time.

Still, mistakes happen, no doubt there will be some extra training and a warning for the driver but, as my old man used to say; he who makes no mistakes does nothing at all.

The only source for the number (150) was a passenger quoted in the article. I'm not sure it could be taken as gospel.

Must have been a slow news day in the local BBC Newsroom. It was a mistake or misunderstanding by the Train Driver. It might be classified as a 'Safety of Line Incident' which I couldn't comment on but there was no danger in the incident! Are the BBC beyond mistakes themselves? As everyone knows pencils have rubbers attached!

I think any train driver or ex train driver on here will tell you that they have done the same i know i have afterall we are only human and they can't hang you for it.

ccmmick.

ccmmick...correct ! It is not the first time this has happened and no doubt it will not be the last. It is a pity the Media dont take a look at their own mistakes which happen on a DAILY basis. This kind of incident on the railway happens OCCASIONALLY.

Ok, the train should have stopped at Didcot, it did not, why ? Did the driver really forget ? Or was there some other reason ? Let the investigation take its course and if the driver is definately at fault then have him / her in the office and find out the real reason, but they must NOT make the driver a scapegoat in the first instance just because it was highlighted on the news.
That would be the easy way out, blame the driver and everyone is happy...wrong !

Trains, Planes, buses etc etc, the first thing the media mention is, was the person in charge (driver or pilot) at fault ?
They never actually wait until all avenues have been looked at.

48111

That is because of the obsession of accountability which blights everyday activities.
something happens- therefore somebody must pay.:(
mickey

So what happens when a train stops when it shouldn't - I can remember one time being on a HST 125 from Swansea on the way to London.

The train stopped at signals at West Reading.... people were hopping off one after another. Lots of announcements requiring them to stay on.... but who needs to go all the way to Reading when you can be home in five minutes and have the kettle on!

Well assuming everyone got off before the signal cleared and the train secured, probably nothing, otherwise, maybe a slight delay.

Quite funny that though. :D sadly can't do this now slam-door coaches are going out of use. (unless you live on the east coast of course).

Ah but there is CDL (Central Door Locking) unfortunatly! and also the modern issuie of 'Insurance'. A few months ago I was stuck at a signal at Trafford Park and two guys wanted to get on, but control would not authorise it.....

Going back many years Grampound Road was shut by beeching a lady traveling from Truro wanted to get out at Grampound Road so the driver and guard stopped for her, the station was all locked up so she had to climb over the fence to get out and hurt her leg there was hell over it they both got into trouble for stopping.

ccmmick.

Good job it wasn't Paddington. :p:eek::eek:

Yeah I doubt the patrons in the Sushi Bar would appreciate a full HST ploughing through! lol ;)

It would also make a mess of "The Lawn":eek:

Best thing that could happen to a Sushi Bar, if you ask me. Yuccchhhh. :D

It would be more of a shame if The Mad Bishop and Bear pub at Paddington Station was destroyed.

ccmmick.

I remember the incident at Largs a few years past !!

Unexpected appearance on the hight street.

Whilst waiting in the hospital waiting room a couple of weeks ago I was reading a book called "Elephants on the line". some carriages were loose shunted through the station wall at Windermere station, 13th August 1962. One complete coach was outside the station !!

And there is that famous (French?) photograph of a steam loco smashed through the buffer stops and wall of a station..........

French indeed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Train_wreck_at_Montparnasse_1895.jpg

yep thats the one! I wonder what catergory SPAD that was? lol

Thats the one with the caption OH S??T on it we used to have that poster on the inside of the toilet door at St Blazey depot :D :D.

ccmmick.

Saint-fèces? lol

All these people who find they HAVE to criticise a train driver for making one mistake, ARE THEY 100% PERFECT in what they do in life, OR their job?

No bramleyman, I doubt if they are mate, but sadly it is a fact of life, to make a scapegoat, and if a driver does make a mistake like not stopping at a station then the "I am perfect brigade" like to try and make a name for themselves and I doubt any of them have ever worked in transport or on the railway anyway.

Anyway It has happened before, it will happen again, no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes.

I know one thing, I am glad I worked 90% goods trains on the job, a wagon full of coal cant argue with you :D.
I used to get the chance of some passenger jobs,nice jobs some of them I admit, but I always preffered "down to earth" work, like trundling along on a dirty old goods train as opposed to dashing up and down the main line on passenger work.

There was more skill AND interest in working a train of coal or a loose coupled goods train and leaving "A" and getting to "B" with everything in good order and giving the Guard a good ride, treating your mate right on the engine, job sorted !

I can remember an old goods guard who absolutely hated any thought of passenger work and when he was in his brakevan he always had a couple of rubber pads which in later years were used by the Pway gangs for something or other, they were not that big and used to be found laying around in goods yards or sidings. Anyway if we were stopped in a station, usually by the "bobby" to wait for a passenger train to clear before giving us the road, this old guard used open the door on his stove in the van and put one of the rubber pads on his fire, when you looked back down the train standing in the platform, the brakevan was making more black smoke than the engine, but apart from his hate of all things passenger, there was method in his madness, because if it was a windy day, the smoke would go through doors and windows, into offices or the station buffet and without a doubt someone on the station would contact the box and get the "bobby" to pull off for us to clear the station. He never got questioned by the "powers that be"about his van smoking so much, and woe betide anyone that tried to enter his van without an invitation, no grade of management worried him, he was a real character, but a first class guard and you knew the train was ok when he had checked it.

48111

Puts on Septic Peg voice

I see the Driver having a Hi-lighter pen, a tiara and a sash saying
"Miss Didcot 2010" toooooooooooooo!!!!

:D

Great point bramleyman!

As a member of train crew I would NEVER critizse a driver for such a thing, and this sort of thing can have many different reasons and not always the drivers fault. I don't think anyone has critized any driver in this thread, even if it has turned a little light hearted, which is exactly how the banter would be like in the mess room. I wish the press and the amazing high number of Commuters to Didcot however would listen to your point.

We used to do the same down here Peter with the black rubber rings and they used to stink plus lots of black smoke i think the PW used to use them in hand points they were also used (dare i say it) to hold the deadmans down on an 08 shunter not that i ever did :confused:.
We had one cocky young lad he came into the shunters cabin waving this black ring around saying whats this with a loco inspector in the cabin, he was trying to be smart the inspector took him outside and tore him off a strip :D :D.

ccmmick.

"Argh" memories mate, the things we all used to get up to, but everything went like clockwork and the job was done, an atmosphere which has gone with BR. I doubt the modern railway people can ever have memories like we have.

48111