Re: Phantom Bells

[craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick)]

"Dave Proctor" <thadocta@spambait.dingoblue.net.au> writes:

>The Railway Rasputin II. wrote in message
><3897DB23.B32051F2@fastlink.com.au>...
>>On G sets yes and they are being fitted to the rest of the fleet.
>>The main part of commonsense says you don't go when the doors are open.

>I have been in with the driver on occasions when he (and I) have not heard
>the doors close (on R/S sets) - there was so much noise in an underground
>station he did not hear the air go to close them.

>But regardless of that, Craig said it was the media overstating the problem,
>and I still submit that it has the potential to be quite serious.

Of course, but the incidence of it happening compared to the number of
trains and number of passengers moving about the system is soo small that
when it *does* happen, the media latch on as they normally do and make a big
deal out of it.

>You say that commonsense says you don't go when the doors are open, but
>there have been a number of incidents where if things had gone properly, the
>incidents would not have occurred - basic human error type incidents.

>You cannot rule out the possibility that a driver would hear the bell and
>start moving, even with the doors open.

No, and it's happened to me too. It's often quite easy to hear a bell on a
train on ad adjacent platform and think it's yours, especially since there
seems to be a program going on to fit new (almost silent) door mechs being
fitted to the trains, and if there's anything more than minimal ambient
noise, it's very difficult to actually hear that the doors are closing from
the driver's compartment.

Regards,

Craig.

--
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
 Send email to craigd@lios.apana.org.au |  Visit my Australian rail transport
   Professional Train Driver, Cityrail  |      and rail modelling web site:
       and HO scale rail modeller       |   http://lios.apana.org.au/~craigd