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Passengers on speeding train are told to sit on the floor for safety
Dick Murray, Transport Correspondent28 Oct 2011
Shocked passengers were told to sit on the floor for their own safety as their train sped from London at up to 125mph.
The 10.48 Pendolino from Euston to Liverpool was more crowded than usual with 600 passengers on board. Dozens were standing in the aisles when the train manager told them they would be travelling fast to make up for lost time and those standing should sit on the floor for "health and safety reasons".
Passenger Tony Bethel, 48, said: "They said that the train was diverted, then that it would go the usual route. "When they told us to sit on the floor it was the last straw."
Pendolinos, the fastest trains in the UK, have a tilting mechanism which allows them to travel around bends on the track without slowing down.
Virgin Trains services suffered delays and overcrowding yesterday because of the theft of signal cables in the Cheshire area.
A spokesman today denied that passengers had been put in danger. He said: "There was absolutely no safety issue involved. We are investigating reports that an instruction was given for passengers to sit on the floor."
A senior source said the manager may have been a "little over enthusiastic" with his instruction.
Reader views (17)
Network Rail should ALREADY include in its Current Planning, Double-Decker Trains To Be Made POSSIBLE.
With the necesssary alterations to Bridges and other rail structures to be started-on, as a matter of course from NOW ON.
This should be MANDATORY in Plans for HIGH-SPEED 2 for example.
As the Comment States: BRUNEL was right, his WIDE-GUAGE rail-track should have remained, not only as laid-down by GWR, but would have been the best Guage to be standardized universally.
- Christopher Crowdy, Chelsea SW3, 31/10/2011 09:32
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"Shocked passengers were told to sit on the floor for their own safety". Maybe a few were shocked. Hopefully most just appreciated the train manager's joke.
- Paul, Cambridge, 30/10/2011 23:51
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Further to the previous comments...I'd like to explain that I travel from London Euston to Preston on a regular basis. There are many time's during the journey when the trains tilting you think you should be in your seat ( especially round Rugby!!!) and it's a bit 'iffy'!! Few thing's here to consider; How much they paid? - Was a seat booked? Obviously no safety issue involved! I'd be quite happy to be asked to sit down - err you can't do that on Reading to London Waterloo!!
- Mark Haworth, Berkshire, 29/10/2011 18:54
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The crew in the driver's cab probably had been warned that Richard Branson who ultimately has the last say on everything VIRGIN, would be attempting to test his outer space Virgin Galactic rocket jet engines on the cheap via Virgin Economy Class, ie: onland fixed to his Pendolino trains.
Taking one leaf too many out of Ryanair's book it seems?
Only survivors could sue.
- Concerned Observer, Harrow, 28/10/2011 22:04
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I bet they still pay full fare
- Michael Boughton-Fox, Cambridge England, 28/10/2011 20:53
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@Jack Spratt - they run double-decker trains in Switzerland, on the same track guage that we use. We should have them here, but someone would have to pay for enlarging tunnels and raising bridges.
Double-decker trains would double rail capacity at a stroke. Replacing all those bridges wouldn't be cheap, but why can't they borrow the money against the eliminated costs of maintaining old Victorian bridges in the future?
- Nigel, London, 28/10/2011 19:09
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On my coach every passenger must wear a seatbelt. My vehicle is also limited to 62 mph. A train doing 125 mph with standing passengers is dangerous in the event of an accident. Why should trains be allowed to go faster than coaches ? They should be restricted to the same speed as coaches and passengers made to wear seatbelts. That is safe. I never travel by train as I can't keep an eye on the driver like I can in a road vehicle.
- Coach driver, England., 28/10/2011 19:01
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This is great we don't have to book seats any more , just get aboard and sit down on the floor,what about the Toilet ? just a hole in the floor.
- Davey_Buoy, Chertsey, 28/10/2011 18:45
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Why let those who didn't have seats on to the train ?, if all they can do is whinge, let them get a later train and get a seat...Oh no, both ways isn't it. 3 - 4 hour journey I certainly wouldn't need a train manager to tell me to sit on the floor, I'd be there.
- John Hardon, Watford Herts, 28/10/2011 16:45
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John: Population increases no doubt increase demand, but so do greater wealth (long-term), longer commutes, and higher car fuel costs (in last year or so).
Train demand is increasing even in rural and slightly depopulating areas.
Another reason, then, for High-Speed-2, although it is the capacity we need, and the high speed is a cheap add-on, that I think Network Rail overplays in its gushy videos.
- Jayy, London, 28/10/2011 16:02
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Its the new 3rd class ticket!
- Mike,, London and once Gt.Britain, 28/10/2011 14:48
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'Train companies have gone faster than usual, to get back to timetable, since Victorian times..'
No problem with the principle, Jay (in fact aren't a lot of scheduled journeys now slower than 80 years ago, to help with timetabling?), but if you have to intrude on what the passenger has paid for, you're probably pushing at the limits, wouldn't you say?
Many years ago I left Calais in a ferry with the bow doors open in squally weather: it seemed completely wrong, but I let the obvious normality of the practice dissuade me from making a row, as my instinct led me to do. But I would have been right: a call went out for the 'Ship's Carpenter,' which struck me as odd, and I nearly asked what it meant in this modern age. After the Zeebrugge disaster I learned that it was a code message to the crew to move discreetly to emergency stations. I have never trusted any official view without my own corroboration since that day.
- mdj, London e10, 28/10/2011 14:47
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A road vehicle of the same dimensions of a train on the same size wheels would be unstable on bends. In theory a large number of standing passengers swaying with the motion of a cornering train could unsettle it. That Brunel fellow knew a wider track and taller wheels would be better over a hundred years ago but it was not followed on grounds of cost. Its a pity we did not follow the Russians and Finns whose trains are wider and better for it.
- Jack Spratt, Richmond, Surrey, 28/10/2011 13:40
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Delays caused by cable theft - happens frequently to trains & other utilities.
I think it was a sensible idea to ask standing passengers to sit, so avoid being thrown about.
The alternatives would be to run slow (so increasing delay & having a knock-on effect on other services) oor perhaps refuse to let anyone on the train once all the seats were filled
- Martin, Bromley, 28/10/2011 13:30
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OVERPOPULATION = OVERCROWDED TRAINS
Rail network is now full to capacity and our Victorian Infrastructure will not allow double deck trains
They were lucky as in India they have to sit on the roof
Does anyone know the true population of the UK ?
Yesterday it was reported that 82 million are registered with NHS .
- john, london, 28/10/2011 13:26
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mdj: Train companies have gone faster than usual, to get back to timetable, since Victorian times (well, actually, since BEFORE Victotian times).
Trains can go faster than the timetable, if they need to, without introducing a safety issue. It does increase wear and tear though. And modern electric trains could technically be built to accelerate so highly, that passengers would feel terrible g-forces, but the trains would still not be unsafe.
Virgin would have wanted to get back into their slot, to avoid introducing even greater delays.
Under socialism, delayed trains would stay delayed?
- Jay, London, 28/10/2011 12:53
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It seems that, as with the Herald of Free Enterprise, the monetary regime rewards the risking of lives. Virgin presumably speeded up the train to avoid a line rental penalty charge. If anything goes wrong, presumably the company can point to official documents banning such behaviour, while the staff know in practice what will happen to their careers if they stick to the rules.
- mdj, London e10, 28/10/2011 12:22
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