Half a job :-(

In the opinion of this writer, Bletchley station car park has "issues".  London Midland are aware, and they have recently done work to resolve one of them.  It's a shame that they didn't take advantage of the opportunity to do a couple of others...

When sections of the upper deck of the car park were removed earlier in the year (see Slimmed down) the exit ramp was relocated.  Unfortunately, in the new location the angle of the slope was steepened and drivers found they were grounding their cars.  The work done a couple of weeks ago involved levelling out the bottom of the slope, reducing (if not removing altogether) the risk of a car striking the ground when it reaches the bottom. 

Unfortunately London Midland didn't address another issue introduced with the relocation of the ramp - the road markings...



The view from the top of the ramp.  This probably exaggerates
the gradient, but note that from this point there is very limited
visibility of traffic coming out from the ground level

Usually cars on a car park ramp have priority as they reach the next level down.  This makes sense as it reduces the chances of accident caused by having to brake on the way down (either slipping or through another car following too close behind).  In its original position the road markings did give priority to cars on the ramp.  In the new position there are no road marking indicating which line of traffic has to give way. 

Two photos showing (a) how little room has been allowed for
vehicles to stop and wait at the bottom of the ramp and (b) the
absence of any give way markings (the solid line is part of the
"do not park here" hatching)

To make matters on the down ramp worse, a car descending is faced with a very short run-off - Only three bays have been hatched off to provide space for vehicles to come down and turn so a driver coming down to ground level has only a few feet to brake and stop  if another car is going past at ground level.

The view coming out from under the car park.  Again, note the
absence of any give-way signs or road markings and the
limited view of vehicles coming down the ramp

It would surely have been possible while London Midland had workmen on site to put up signs and paint road markings making the give way/priorities clear...

The other problem that London Midland could have dealt with was putting measures in place to enforce the one-way system (see one way?).  The problem of drivers coming out of the entrance against the one-way system has been acknowledged, but it was first raised with London Midland in May last year and there's no sign of any action being taken.

Both of these issues increase the risk of accidents.  As car park customers we are paying a significant amount of money into London Midland's coffers, and it would be nice to think that some of this could be used to fix the problem before something serious happens.

Action is needed now please! 

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Crazy Train!

We've been having some real fun and games on the 1751 from Euston recently.  That train is made up of a 4-car and an 8-car unit.  The 4-car comes onto platform 13 empty around 1730 and the 8-car is the 1738 arrival from Tring.  The two units couple up to make a 12-car semi-fast train to Northampton.

We've been boarding the 1751 on platform 13 for what must be 5-6 weeks without any problems.  Passengers accept that the doors have to be locked for a minute or two while the two sets of carriages are coupled up, but anyone boarding before that operation was just expected to stay safely sat down.

Three weeks ago everything changed.  Passengers boarding the 8-car unit after it had pulled in and before the coupling operation had taken place heard an onboard announcement asking them to get off.  Anyone spotted by the driver or guard remaining on the train was escorted off.  I didn't see it, but I'm told that at the end of the platform nearest the ramp there was actually a police officer (or a PCSO) instructing them not to board.  The reason given is 'health & safety'.

According to @londonmidland (Twitter) there is nothing in the rule book that says that passengers cannot be on a train while it couples.  This is a normal operation that takes place several times a day across the network, and as long as people are sensible and sit down there shouldn't be a problem.  Someone at Euston seems to think differently, and to date the message doesn't appear to have got through...

This week has been particularly interesting.  On Wednesday and Thursday the doors were locked before we had the onboard announcement asking us to get off.  On Friday we had the same followed by an announcement asking us to sit down! 

London Midland have promised to get this sorted, but in the meantime I'm associating the 1751 with Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train"  ;-)



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Temperature's rising...

There can be no dispute that the UK weather has been unseasonably warm this week, but has it really been hot enough to justify the speed restrictions that we've seen on the line into Euston Thursday, Friday and today? 


The daily temperatures in London over the last three days have peaked around 28-29 degrees.  Hot for end September/early October, but hardly extreme for this country.  Despite this, train services on the West Coast Mainline (WCML) have been disrupted.


I can't pretend to be a rail expert, let alone a specialist in track maintenance and rail standards, but I can read.  There's a mass of documentation available on the Rail Group Standards website (rgsonline.co.uk).  One of those documents is titled "Track Standards Manual - Section 7: track System".  (This one's dated December 1998 and it's annotated as "Withdrawn".  I can't find the current equivalent but it seems safe to assume that in the health & safety world that we now live in the minimum standards it describes are not going to be drastically different in 2011).

The following references are interesting and relevant:

• Page 5 section 3.1: "The track system shall be designed, inspected and maintained to ensure the safe passage of vehicles taking account of normal temperature variations".
• Page 6 section 6.1: "The track system shall be capable of resisting rail temperatures in the range of -14°C to +53°C without distortion".
• Page 6 section 6.2: "CWR (continuously welded rail) track shall be installed and maintained at a notional stress free temperature (SFT) of 27°C and records shall be kept of the SFT."
• Page 13 section 9.2.9: "Additional Precautions during Exceptionally Hot Weather - When the forecast air temperature is 36°C or above arrangements shall be made to impose emergency speed restrictions in accordance with GO/RT3411"

There's more, but the content of this document all reads to me to indicate that Network rail should be laying and maintaining the track (which is normally artificially stressed) to a standard that would allow the normal operation of rail services at temperatures significantly higher than we have experienced this week.

So what the heck is going on?  I can think of only two possible conclusions:

1. Network Rail is failing to maintain the WCML to the required standard
2. Health & safety concerns are being exaggerated

I suspect it's the latter, but fear the former (we know from the frequent problems caused by general track, point and signal failures, particularly around Harrow-Watford Junction-Bushey and Bletchley) that there are issues.  


What do you think?  Is the performance over the last three days acceptable?  Am I being unfair to Network Rail?  Are the passengers being adequately served? 




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