WCRC Licence Suspended

A number o those will be guests of course, it's publicly viewable. Even so, the large numbers, both views and posts, still boggle the mind (as do the problems they are experiencing of course!)

 

The thread has only been going for twenty days.

 

from a respected poster on WNXX forum:


I've spoken to ORR today and whilst not repeating anything from the conversation - YES they know what is being said on forums and NO they aren't really bothered by it (maybe a bit saddened). They are responding very carefully to clarification questions and are going no further than explaining what the process is that they have started. They have had some "so called enthusiasts" phoning and trying to claim they are from various magazines and press outlets and pushing for answers ORR wouldn't give to anyone (which is the clue that they aren't genuine!) - which is not a good thing to hear. ORR is now calling journos back on established numbers rather than just taking calls - unless they know the callers well enough to be certain.

The only points ORR are making which I think are important here are
1) A decision on what to do next will not be rushed - they want to get it right and people contacting them saying "I want to know if my charter is running or not" isn't going to push them into a hasty decision, and
2) Safety is the overriding factor here (and they certainly aren't going into anything deeper about events that have happened or the process now underway) - and the reality is (as with point 1) people contacting them saying "But jobs are at stake" can't make them rush a decision. They are fully aware of the impact that every day WCR isn't operational is having on people in other businesses etc. but their primary remit is to ensure that a safe railway is operating.

If anyone thinks safety shouldn't be at the top of the ORR's priorities then they need to get some primary legislation sorted in the next Parliament...

The decision will be made when ORR has looked at everything it needs to look at etc.

Finally - as many know ORR itself has been struggling because of the fire near its offices recently that took out many phone lines - so it is doing pretty well to manage all this with very reduced comms facilities.

 

Irrespective of the number of postings, most will agree that this crisis for CRISIS it is, overshadows what ever is happening on the West Somerset. What is happening on the mainline is FRONT PAGE NEWS, it even hit national TV news and most national newspapers. The WSR may have 10.000 posts but who cares. What I do care about is not the politics of a private 25mph railway in the West Country but the future of mainline steam throughout the UK.

 

Sorry to repeat previous posts, but we have to take the ORR seriously and they will not be put under undue pressure to reach an early decision. They clearly realise that they have to make THE RIGHT DECISION which I desperately hopes is in favour of WCR and mainline steam.

 

I'm sure those at the WSR are equally concerned for the future of their line, and jobs in some cases. Any true steam enthusiast can't fail to be concerned by both of these on-going situations.

 

So why bother?

 

Steam Railway arrived this morning,and amidst the many pages of coverage I could'nt see anything which we did not already know,however there is one item which I have not seem mentioned before:

SPAD's are graded from 1 to 28 in terms of severity and W Bassett was a 25 (apparently the most serious since 2010). Anything of 20 or more is considered "potentially severe" and triggers a mandatory investigation by ORR. This does partly put in to context ORR's involvement maybe?

 

Got your post already? You're lucky mine arrives when the pigeon decides to flap his wings & land after his feed.
NO I don't live in the sticks, just the opposite, on a large suburb only a couple of miles outside the town centre. The local sorting office is only a mile or two away.

 

well it did go a long way past the signal, and across the points the signal was guarding - which as we know had luckily switched by then.

 

Worth noting it is a log scale not linear so a 25 is twice as serious as a 24 on that scale and so on. 2010 might refer to Carstairs in Dec 2009 where a freight train overran red signals by two miles, had a near miss, and required the signaller to intervene to change the route of the freight train at Carstairs.

 

however you still managed to find the time to tell everybody what a busy person you are!

 

A logarithmic scale from 1 to 28 is ridiculous. It must just be the arbitrary opinion of the categoriser unless there are defined criteria for each point. Are there?

 

I'm afraid I'm no good at posting links but this is based on RSSB paper 'Category A SPADs and TPWS activity report appendices'. Try Googling Category A SPAD reports. That paper quotes the factors which go into the calculation but not the formula itself. Exactly how the factors are combined to generate a score of x is not clear in that paper, I agree it would be interesting to know that.

I'm not sure I agree about the log scale. Of course it's just a convenient device but if you want a way of comparing expected casualties from a very wide range of events starting with overrunning a red signal by a few metres up to a Carstairs or even Ladbroke Grove then something which doubles the risk per unit on the scale is a reasonable way of presenting it.

 

Thanks, found it: http://www.rssb.co.uk/Library/risk-analysis-and-safety-reporting/2013-2014-appendix-q3-SPAD-TPWS.pdf

Not had time to read it properly but I get the drift. I was wrong about the log scale. I see now how it works.

The other associated papers are also interesting. I wonder if WCR have a properly qualified engineer well versed in modern management systems and able to respond to the present issues at an appropriate level. I have commented before how astonished I was at the responses given by WCR and reported in ADA20 after last years East Coast ban. I hope they are able to present a better case than they did then.

 

http://www.railmagazine.com/news/ne...ate?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Latest update from Real Rail magazine, which expands on what was posted by Railway Herald the other day.

 

This was also covered in Modern Railways.

 

In the case that ORR do remove WCRC then what is likely to happen, can someone else take over their operation how hard is it to get a safety certificate that covers what WCRC provide, maybe this will be something the various loco owners may have to look at, after all unless DBS increase their stock and crews then there will be very limited steam on NR, RSL would be the likely party to front it, as they are most likely to have the people with experience in the right places

 

Worried

 

Unless there is a concept of the ultimate owner not being a "fit and proper" person or similar, it seems a little pointless to take away WCRC's accreditation assuming they can jump through the hoops. A chastened WCRC seems a better bet than an outfit that has no track record at all, even if it can produce a safety management plan of such potency that it needs to be carried around in a golden ark. And if that new kid on the block hires the same drivers, then it looks even more pointless. Doesn't it?