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It’s perfectly ok to pull the passenger alarm

01 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

hrmmm, meh, passengers, srs bsns, train, tube, yikes

I’ve been on holiday recently. I’ve been driving for two days now and both have been somewhat chaotic in one way or another. Signal failures, unexpectedly high passenger numbers, late running, odd instructions, lost trains, trains doing the timetable in reverse and panicky managers who think they might have lost a couple of drivers somewhere have been some highlights. It’s good to be back. 🙂

Less good was an incident last night. I’m not going to say much about it as I’m hopeful that the police will be able to make some headway and this will come to court. But the upshot was a smashed up train and a passenger with head injuries. And a conversation with another passenger about how, when and why to use passenger emergency alarms. As I’ve had this conversation several times over the years I’m going to try to explain how the system works in the hope that word will slowly get around and people can stop worrying.

Worrying, is a big thing with pulling emergency alarms. They are big and red and carry all sorts of ominous warnings about dire consequences if they are misused. Lot’s of people worry that their situation is not serious enough to warrant pulling the alarm. If you are that sort of person then please get on a train and pull an alarm – because you are not the sort of person those warnings are aimed at.

There’s an odd circumstance where the people we want to tell not to pull emergency alarms are the very people who are most likely to pull one. These are the people who get frustrated that their train has run slowly or been delayed and who pull the alarm and run away when they arrive at their station. This doesn’t bother either the driver or London Underground in the slightest as we were all there anyway. What it does is to further delay the other passengers as we reset things and try to find the person having the “emergency”. Conversely, the people we most want to pull the alarm are least likely to do so. On several occasions I’ve noticed people racing up the platform and not attempting to board the train. Given the odd behaviour I’ve waited and when they reach the front they’ll explain that there’s something dreadful going on in my train. After they’ve got their breath back of course. I’ve never been able to fathom why they didn’t just pull the alarm and I have absolutely no idea how to rectify this situation but I’ll give a few examples of when it’s appropriate to pull the alarm. But first, the science bit.

Each handle is linked into a few electrical systems on the train. When pulled this has three main consequences. The first is that the brakes apply. Not an emergency brake but the train will stop. The second is that an alarm sounds in the driver’s cab to tell them why their train has suddenly stopped. Traditionally this alarm is fixed at the typical London Underground setting of ‘OH MY GOD WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE’ and you’ll be lucky if the driver doesn’t immediately expire of fright at the sound of it. Fortunately the alarm on my train is more gentle, meaning I can be of some practical help. And the third thing that happens is a light shines on the car in which the alarm was pulled. There’s often a second alarm in the car too though not on all trains. This helps staff locate the area where the alarm was pulled.

So the alarm gets pulled and the train stops. What happens next depends on the circumstances. If any part of the train is in a station it will stop there, the driver will inform the Voices and have station staff sent down to assist and an announcement will be made letting everyone know what’s going on and asking whomever pulled the alarm to make themselves known to staff. That last bit is important – we’re not psychic. And on many trains we have a facility called talkback which means the driver can speak to the person who pulled the alarm and get details of what’s going on.

If the train is not in a station then much of the above takes place but in a different order. The train will brake but the driver is able to override this and keep it moving in order to get to the next station. It is astonishingly rare that we would investigate an incident outside of a station as it is too difficult to get any further assistance down the tunnels to the train. If we need ambulances or the police or to evacuate then that’s all much more easily done from a station.

So when should you pull the alarm? Well ideally, not when you’ve woken up and realised you’ve just missed your stop. And not when you’ve heard the chimes, sprinted to force your way through the closing doors and then realised that you’ve left your mates behind on the platform. Just get off at the next station and wait for them to arrive. Also, not when the train is sitting between stations for a long time and the driver has already told you that there is going to be a lengthy delay. These things are all annoying and frustrating but they are not emergencies; they’re just the minor trials of life.

Left your kid? Pull the alarm? Pile of puke/blood/poo/other on the floor? Pull the alarm. We don’t want biohazards around our passengers. You or another passenger injured or taken seriously unwell? Pull it. Fire, smoke, burning smell – we really like it if you pull the alarm then. Really. Fires of some sort are reasonably common on an electric railway but we really like to stop them before they really start. It is my opinion that London Underground is permanently on fire in some way but that’s no reason to go ignoring it.

What else? Abandoned luggage? Yes, we like to know about that. The vast majority of the time the thing is perfectly safe. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times we’ve had dangerous things left. But please still pull the alarm because whoever lost it would like it back. It’s incredibly easy to leap off your train and forget something. If it’s something smaller like a wallet or shoes or whatever then just let other passengers know you’re going to hand it in and give it to a member of staff. Often we have staff on platforms making announcements so conceivably you can nip out and hand over a wallet and get back on your train without any delay.

Remember what I said about losing your friends? Well that’s not an emergency but if your friends happen to be children or similarly vulnerable people then pull the alarm.

The last reason I can think of is for general disorder on the train. If there’s a fight going on near you or if someone is being threatened. If the train is being vandalised then pull the alarm. If you see something dangerous like an open external door or someone falling from the train (rare, but it happens) then pull the alarm. Essentially if you feel in danger or you perceive that harm may come to another person or the train then please pull the alarm. We won’t be cross.

Two more things: Consider all the reasons I’ve given for which the emergency alarm should be pulled. Many of those are going to be times when the train cannot continue to run with passengers. Either because it is damaged or because there is potential danger in the form of biohazards or fire or similar. So if you hear the driver of your train make an announcement about a passenger alarm then please be aware that you may be asked to leave the train quite soon. And the faster you can do that the sooner the problem train can be removed. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been detraining and someone has asked me when the next train will arrive. Now logically two trains cannot occupy the same space so there is never going to be another train until the first one has moved on. And the second one will be right quick. Because it’s been held at the signal behind while the problem train is sorted out. So be ready to scoot off and let the driver close up quickly and get out of there.

Finally, if you do witness an incident like an assault or vandalism then please provide your details. We absolutely understand that you’re trying to get somewhere and might not have time to wait for the police to arrive but they could still do with hearing your version of events. You could pass your name and mobile number to a member of staff and ask them to give it to the police when they arrive or you could call your local station later and let them know you were a witness. They’ll be able to contact whichever officers are investigating and they’ll call you back to get your statement. Quite often staff are not in the place where something is happening and can’t provide any good witness statements. Last night all I could do was give a time and an approximate location which is not much to go on. And I confess that there was so much going on that I forgot to ask for the details of the passengers who had been witnesses though I hope the station superviser remembered to. The really important people to a police investigation are those in the back who can see what’s going on. So please let either us or the police know who you are so that incidents can be investigated. And don’t be afraid to pull the alarm in an emergency.

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A health study

08 Saturday Jan 2011

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

meh, train, tube

It’s been a long night. A long several nights. During the course of which I’ve been conducting an interesting health study on myself. Well not conducting really, just noting the effects of nightshift on my health. And it’s not good. Not good at all.

London Underground has night shifts on most lines. Our basic job is to put the last trains away at night and bring the first ones out in the morning. They could just separate that out into two shifts and use taxis to get staff in and out of depots but by keeping someone overnight there is an absolute gurantee that the first trains will run.

In between the last and first trains is an interesting period. If it is cold then night crews run de icing trains up and down the outdoor parts of their line. This week the temperature hasn’t dipped too low and maintenance crews have been working on some of our points so I’ve been spared doing that. Though I’m not sure if ‘spared’ is the right word as I’m then left to sit for three hours staring into space and waiting for morning.

Some drivers will use this time to sleep. We have a variety of small rooms around the combine where three soft seats are lined up together to form a tiny bed. It’s generally first come, first served so if you are the unfortunate who brings in the very last train you might find yourself sitting in a hard chair overnight. That or curl up on a train that’s not being worked on and try to nap there.

I’ve never been able to sleep while on nights. there’s not enough time to get a good sleep and waking up dopey in the morning is a recipe for disaster. So if I am not required for anything else I just lie and daydream for a few hours. I take a book with me but I’m usually too tired to take in anything that I read. I spend most of the week in a fairly vague state whether I’m at work or not.

The changes that nights can inflict on a person are phenomenal. I’m sure there’s an EU study in it somewhere. We work 7 nights in a row plus anything tacked on from the previous week if we were scheduled to work that. As I’m generally a bit sleepy when not driving I have found that I’m getting too tired to eat. I started tracking my calorie intake and output and it’s really not good. Most days I can’t seem to manage more than around 1000 calories. Today I’ve got as far as 710 and I’m full and I really don’t think I can have anything more. I may start selling my night turns to people desperate to lose weight fast as I’ve lost around half a stone this week so far. Of course, by not eating enough I’m only contributing to feeling tired but I can’t seem to find a way around it. I’m too tired to watch TV or read or even surf the net much so I’m sure as hell too tired to sit here and eat much. It has taken a phenomenally long time to write this with any degree of coherence. I initially meant this blog entry to be somewhat different but my brain is not working well enough to do more than stilted sentences and basic facts.

One thing I dislike is the social isolation. I get a ten minute real-life conversation with a manager when I book on at night but unless a customer asks me a question or the line controller calls me about something that’s it. I’ve spent the week struggling to stay awake when I get home in the morning so I can chat via messenger with poggs and passengeraction before they go out to work. I know you have to be a bit self sufficient in this job but it’s getting ridiculous. I really miss people.

The most alarming part of nightshift is when I sleep in the morning. I presume I am locked into some sort of endurance thing for worktime but when I get home that seems to collapse. Getting home and going to bed I turn incredibly cold. You would not believe the number of layers I have to have just to be warm enough to sleep. Not that I’m actually warm but warm enough. I’m now incredibly glad that I have an old hot water bottle kicking around because it helps a lot. The coldness seems to vanish when I wake up and I go back into endurance mode again.

I’m on my last night tonight and won’t be doing them for a while. Next week I’ll get the rest days I didn’t get this week so it will be a nice recovery period. During which I shall perhaps request some new uniform in a smaller size. Or eat. Lots.

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Severe Delays on Network Rail

16 Saturday Oct 2010

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Severe Delays on Network Rail

Tags

meh, train

I am on a train. A big train. But dreadfully slow. I appear to have fucked up someone else’s railway…

We started the evening with points failure. Now someone has nicked the cabling. That would be the cabling in the area five minutes from my destination. So now we are waiting for someone to come and secure points (there’s always points, it’s the law that points be involved in all delays) so we can pull into the station. So far we’ve been waiting nearly an hour.

Naturally I’ve volunteered to go and do it but the traincrew tell me that Network Rail don’t typically leave the relevant equipment at useful places. LUL generally *do* have the relevant equipment nearby but I suppose we are a much smaller railway. This does not console me much.

Is anyone else getting flashbacks to Christmas?

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Uncomfortably damp

08 Friday Oct 2010

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Uncomfortably damp

Tags

kids, meh, tube, waving

Today did not have an auspicious start. Whilst sleepily bumbling around at home at horrendous o’clock I turned the tap on too much and blasted myself with cold water. This led to me being much more awake and scrambling around to find some dry, clean uniform two minutes before I was due to leave. Fortunately nobody bats an eyelid if we don’t take our fleeces off all day so I didn’t have to find any ironed uniform!

Once at work I opened my flask of delicious, delicious coffee only to find I hadn’t properly twisted on the inside part and that it was not so hot as it could be. I’m not displeased by this as I later zoomed a train over rough track and glanced down to watch my coffee cup tumbling into my lap. *sigh* At least it wasn’t more than warm.

Still, I sulked my way through the day in a miasma of coffee-stink now doubly unable to take my fleece off. Until about midday when the sun came out and word of my unfortunate day had clearly got around. I trundled along to be met with hordes of grandparents on bridges who had all brought along toddlers to Wave at me. Thankyou, Londoners. There’s nothing quite like bridge after platform after staircase after side-street of Waving nippers to lift the spirits. 🙂

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Conversations I wish I could have

06 Monday Sep 2010

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Conversations I wish I could have

Tags

meh, rant, train, truth, tube

Dear Idiot Customer,

If I have told you that one of the brakes is failing and you all need to get off the train here and sorry but it won’t be going any further then for the love of pete do not try to engage me in your pathetic whining. Yes I understand that it is the weekend and we’re on a limited service but that’s because there are engineering works over which I have no control. And guess what? Railways do not yet operate on luck and pixie dust. They operate on metal and stone and the laws of physics and this means repairing or replacing rather large bits of equipment at reasonably regular intervals. Failure to do this rather drastically increases your chances of death while travelling. If you don’t like it then go away and start working out how to run things on luck and pixie dust. If it works we’ll probably pay you lots for that idea.

Oh and fuck off anyway because we weren’t even supposed to be running this far but the guys worked their arses off and finished the works a day early at which point everybody decided it would be nice to scramble the night before and work out an extended service. So if you want us to run according to plan then we can quite happily return you to the point we were supposed to stop and refuse to run you any further than that. Oh except we can’t because the brakes are failing and I’m kicking you the fuck off my train.

regards
Severe Delays…

Except I usually won’t say that because in general those who argue about such things are not worth bothering with and I’ll just nod and smile and tell you how sorry I am and then continue my merry way not caring in the slightest about you. (This is to your detriment because those who politely and reasonably speak to me about how to get to where they are going will be the ones I don’t mind stopping to help). And don’t even begin to bitch about how noisy the train is and how you can’t hear your iPod because I will just laugh at you.

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Protected: Cheer up emo driver.

03 Tuesday Nov 2009

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

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meh, not-trains

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Tube Map Debacle 2009

17 Thursday Sep 2009

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

meh, tube

In case you haven’t followed the Great September Zonage Battle I’ll do a quick recap.

TfL produce little maps of the tube/train system which are free at stations. They are in A5 size so although they need to contain a lot of information it’s important to do it in as uncluttered a way as possible. Fortunately Harry Beck came up with the idea that our maps don’t need to be geographically accurate in order to convey the information (though strictly speaking this means they are no longer maps but schematics).

Fast forward many decades and the company has added a lot more in the way of lines and stations. The map is looking a bit cluttered. So somebody decides it would be a good idea to take out the river and the zone guidance. This is utter madness and has prompted a bit of a rammy amongst those who care about such things.

I can just about agree to the river being removed. Personally I think it’s useful to help orient oneself given that the ‘map’ is not actually a map and showing how stops intersect with the river is very useful. It’s not essential though. What I can’t understand is doing away with the zoning. How on earth are customers supposed to know how much their journey will cost if there is no indication that going from A to B is going to cost more? The obvious thing to do would be to ask but for that to work we’d need staff about the place and guess which company is trying to do away with ticket offices?

I suspect the large maps in stations will still show zoning information and presumably nobody is going to go ripping out the maps on the trains to replace them with less information. So that’s a help. But I honestly can’t see that the new version of the map is going to stand up in the magistrates’ court when Mrs Migglesworth gets pulled up for fare dodging. I don’t pretend to understand the rationale for giving less information to passengers but I sincerely hope we stop doing it quickly!

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Protected: Meh

01 Monday Jun 2009

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

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meh, train, tube

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Protected: What do you want? Why are you here?

18 Monday May 2009

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

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meh, muppets, train, tube

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Protected: A balancing act

04 Monday May 2009

Posted by severedelays in Uncategorized

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fuckwits, meh, train, tube

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