• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Woman fined for blocking train door

Status
Not open for further replies.

transmanche

Established Member
Joined
27 Feb 2011
Messages
6,018
This story relates to an incident on the T&W Metro, but I've posted it here as the topic has been discussed on a number of occasions.

Woman fined for blocking Metro at Newcastle's Monument

"A woman has been fined more than £500 after obstructing the door of a Metro train. The 21-year-old was prosecuted under Metro Bylaws and was later due to appear at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court. But she failed to show and she was found guilty in her absence. The offence happened at the city centre Metro station on January 9."
This is the first time I've heard of a person being prosecuted under byelaws for obstructing a door. Do you think more TOCs should do this?

Full story in Newcastle's Evening Chronicle
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Starmill

Veteran Member
Fares Advisor
Joined
18 May 2012
Messages
23,224
Location
Bolton
Is this a joke? I thought it was like the fine for removing seat reservation labels - entirely intended as a deterrent. Who gets the £500?
 

Geezertronic

Established Member
Joined
14 Apr 2009
Messages
4,089
Location
Birmingham
I don't see what there is to joke about, she committed a Byelaw offence and has rightly been punished for it
 

tsr

Established Member
Joined
15 Nov 2011
Messages
7,400
Location
Between the parallel lines
Bearing in mind the disruption I have seen first-hand from people forcing and thus damaging train door mechanisms, this is entirely justified.
 

Zoidberg

Established Member
Joined
27 Aug 2010
Messages
1,270
Location
West Midlands
Is this a joke? I thought it was like the fine for removing seat reservation labels - entirely intended as a deterrent. Who gets the £500?

Well, not her. She was fined £400. But the final bill is £530 once the costs and victim surcharge are added.
 

ModernRailways

Established Member
Joined
21 Apr 2011
Messages
2,046
This story relates to an incident on the T&W Metro, but I've posted it here as the topic has been discussed on a number of occasions.

"A woman has been fined more than £500 after obstructing the door of a Metro train. The 21-year-old was prosecuted under Metro Bylaws and was later due to appear at North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court. But she failed to show and she was found guilty in her absence. The offence happened at the city centre Metro station on January 9."

This is the first time I've heard of a person being prosecuted under byelaws for obstructing a door. Do you think more TOCs should do this?

Full story in Newcastle's Evening Chronicle

The Metro has just put this byelaw in. It goes alongside the new refurbished trains. The maximum is £1000 so you could argue she got off lightly. Metro are clamping down on this, I have even been on a train where someone held the doors, the driver refused to leave until she left the train. She never moved off the train, so he threatened her with the BTP. Still didn't move, then people started getting angry at her and I think she then realised she didn't want to have to stay on a train with a bunch of people moaning at her. The worst part was that she did in the peak where there can be a train every 2 minutes, most of the time the Pelaw trains are one signal behind the train in front.

Also, since the Metro runs on Network Rail metals if Metro gets delayed they can lose their path and sometimes that has meant Metro can only go down every 30 minutes.
 

robertclark125

Established Member
Joined
12 Mar 2008
Messages
1,616
Location
Cardenden, Fife
Not to mention that obstructing the train doors can be dangerous, and cause injury. I saw someone do it at South shields, trying to board as the doors were closing, and got caught in the doors, and had a struggle to pull herself free.

I welcome the fact that Metro is clamping down on this, as it's only a matter of time before someone is badly hurt or even killed.
 

ModernRailways

Established Member
Joined
21 Apr 2011
Messages
2,046
I should also add though that drivers should be checking the platforms before pulling off.

Now I never would normally condone holding the doors but this happened and so an instant reaction was to hold them.

About 2 years ago as I was getting off with my Mam and the children she looks after and the door closing tone sounded, obviously she tried to hurry the kids off quicker but rushing them off is dangerous in itself, if I had not of been there then either the train would have left with a child still on board or someone getting trapped. As it was 4001 I knew the doors wouldn't bounce back and so I put my whole body into the door and another passenger jumped up and pushed the emergency brake on the centre pole. The driver came down turned off the emergency brake and just sighed. As soon as we got in the house she rang Metro control and reported it. A week later we received a letter basically saying that it was our fault because we didn't leave the train quick enough. The train was 2 minutes early - as normal and so had been given the green signal, if it was on time it would have to wait 30 seconds for the train towards Newcastle to arrive.

I have never held the doors since and wouldn't do unless it was an emergency like above, in which case it may be dangerous but such a situation as above could also be described as an emergency. Once, I have in fact sprinted for the first Metro of the day, because it was one minute early and when I arrived onto the platform the door closing tone had just ended and so I held back deciding not to get on, I went to the side of the train in the hope the driver would see me, but he obviously hadn't, maybe he didn't check the platform either?

I've seen a lot of drivers who check the platform, then close the doors and don't bother checking again to make sure nothing/nobody is trapped. I can only hope someone from Nexus/DB Regio see's this and acts upon it, it would be so easy for someone to get trapped in the doors, especially a small child.
 

edwin_m

Veteran Member
Joined
21 Apr 2013
Messages
24,793
Location
Nottingham
Their attitude has probably been influenced by this accident:

http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/reports_2012/report262012.cfm


Person trapped in a train door and dragged at Jarrow station, Tyne and Wear Metro

Report name:
121203_R262012_Jarrow

Incident date:
12 April 2012

Category:
Metro

Summary:
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) has released its report into a person trapped in a train door and dragged at Jarrow station, Tyne and Wear Metro 12 April 2012. The RAIB has made five recommendations.

Download report:
ico_pdf.gif
121203_R262012_Jarrow.pdf (758.79 kb)
 

12CSVT

Established Member
Joined
18 Aug 2010
Messages
2,612
It's about time that all TOCs clamped down on this.
 

bluenoxid

Established Member
Joined
9 Feb 2008
Messages
2,459
It is not a surprise that Metro are chasing this. The intensity of service with humans is really difficult to maintain if Geordies insist on holding doors open.

Mind you, the RAIB are also investigating this

http://www.raib.gov.uk/publications/current_investigations_register/130108_south_gosforth.cfm

Electrical fault and fire on a metro train near South Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, 8 January 2013

The RAIB is investigating an incident which occurred between South Gosforth and Longbenton stations on the Tyne and Wear Metro system on Tuesday 8 January 2013.

At 14:08 hrs a two-car Metro train left South Gosforth station on its way from South Shields to St James. A few seconds after it left the station, an electrical fault caused severe arcing in underfloor equipment and a fire developed underneath the rear car. The train stopped, and a short time later the overhead contact wire parted and fell on the roof of the rear car. The arcing which had caused the fire ceased after about 45 seconds, but not before a large amount of smoke had entered the rear car. There were 45 passengers in this vehicle, and they used emergency release handles to open the doors and were then able to get out onto the side of the track, from where Metro staff escorted them to a place of safety nearby. The emergency services attended and damped-down the smouldering train. No-one was hurt in the incident, and there was no significant damage to the interior of the train.

The RAIB’s investigation will examine the sequence of events before and during the incident. It will consider in particular the nature of the original fault, the reasons why the arc persisted for so long, the use of the emergency door release equipment (which some passengers found difficult to operate), and the management of communications during the incident. It will also review the history and maintenance of the systems used on the Metro to protect against electrical faults in the power supply and on trains.

The RAIB’s investigation is independent of any investigation by the safety authority (the Office of Railway Regulation).

The RAIB will publish its findings, including any recommendations to improve safety, at the conclusion of its investigation. This report will be available on the RAIB website.
 

142094

Established Member
Joined
7 Nov 2009
Messages
8,789
Location
Newcastle
The byelaws which enabled this prosecution have been around since the system opened in the 80s, and there have been prosecutions in the past for the exact same offence. However, these are very rarely reported.

I'll not comment on the specific case mentioned above, but a driver would never intentionally go to shut the doors when they are blocked. In the vast majority of cases it is people either boarding against the door tones and pushing the doors open, or people who leave it very late until they decide to get off the train for whatever reason.
 

Paul_10

Member
Joined
24 Feb 2011
Messages
736
Never understood why people block the doors I really don't, it might be an instinctive thing to do but trains are only 6 mins(12 on the outer parts of the system) from each other so surely not a big loss if you do miss your train.

Its good to hear they are clamping down on it but the words that the woman PA announcer says of "thank you for keeping metro safe" sounds very patronising too me and are not really needed.

I also think is the fine of upto £1000 is excessive or not? Surely vandalism or pushing the Emergency brake button illegally warrants heavier fines than holding a door open although I do accept that does class as vandalism but I mean more deliberate acts of vandalism like etchings and what not.

I also notice this woman was 21, I wonder if she would of got a fine if she was a much older woman in there 60's.
 

12CSVT

Established Member
Joined
18 Aug 2010
Messages
2,612
I also think is the fine of upto £1000 is excessive or not? Surely vandalism or pushing the Emergency brake button illegally warrants heavier fines than holding a door open although I do accept that does class as vandalism but I mean more deliberate acts of vandalism like etchings and what not.
This sort of activity can cause damage to door mechanisms, and ultimately cause trains to be taken out of service, so, yes, the fine is justified.

I only wish the main line TOCs would follow suit.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top