Re: emergency door releasing on Tangara's, etc.

[matthew@mail.usyd.edu.au (Matthew Geier)]

In article <814j7o$1ub$1@lios.apana.org.au>,
C. Dewick <craigd@lios.apana.org.au> wrote:

>passengers, with little or no ventilation (which is the best way to stop the
>fire as well as stop the passengers) any passengers trapped inside have a
>couple of minutes to live before the toxic fumes from the burning
>fibreglass, seat coverings, etc. takes effect.
>
>Note I did not put a '8-)' after that - because I am very seriously stating
>that, despite CityRail managements best efforts are glossing over the issue
>by ignoring it, the Tangara's are a serious fire hazard.

 I compained to the Bankstown line manager years ago about this (I worked in
Bankstown at the time, so I visited the office), and was expertly deflected
away form that issue. (This PR guy was good! :-)

 The night before I was on an R set that suffered a short in a jumper cable
which started burning. The short started to cause problems with control
and we stopped between Kogarah and Carlton.
 I went to the guard and said we were on fire, and he really didnt belive me,
but at my inistance followed me back to the 2nd last car. By this time the
driver had gotten out and was walking the length and spotted the moldering
jumper, which he kicked out of its socket, plunging my car into darkness.
 I then mentioned that the cable kept re-igniting all the time and the driver
made some comment about a breaker triping every time he powered.

 The train was evacuated at Hurtville and ran empty cars to the shed.
 However at Hurstville the blacked out cars doors didn't work. The driver
released the front, the guard the back last car, and the passengers in my
car forced and I and some other passengers and the guard held the doors open
against the air while every one got off. The guard tried to use the emergency
release but it had been cut out by that stage.

 The managers office line was that the guard was in error for not instructing
the passengers to leave the car via the end doors.

 They were total non interested in 'what if that cable had failed inside the
car body, filling the car with toxic smoke. And 'If a Tanagara train suffered
the same failure ?. Not interested. The cables are fireproof. Cant happen.
etc....
 They also continually insisted that the manual door releases were only a
maintence convience and not an 'emergency escape'.

 The situation on a Tangara is worse, with those large communication doors and
covered gangway - a serious electrical fire that takes out the TMS, and shorts
the trainline power feed , the doors are effectively jambed shut. The external
control wont work, as it is now electric instead of mechanical. (Something
Gonnians wanted from the start, but it was inisted for 'safety' that the
ground level release be mechanical, thus complicating the door mech). So
the doors wont open, there is no way to open them. The paniced passengers
use the manual release on the communication doors, thus fulling the entire
4 car set with toxic smoke, panicing even more passengers.

 Clever disaster planning, that one....


 All 'cause they couldn't control 'schoolies' pushing/pulling the door releases.