Station ramps to be fenced off

In this months Railway Magazine there is an article about Network Rail starting to fence off platform end ramps. Reading the article NR is trying to stop people from walking off the end of platforms and walking in front of oncoming trains to commit suicide. Once these new fences are installed at all possible suicide hot spots will NR continue to roll out this idea across the net work? Is this also being used to stop genuine railway photographers from taking photos from the end of platforms? Is this another way to stop rail photographers from encroaching to far down the end of the ramp and becoming at risked of being hit by an oncoming train?

 

I guess they'll go in at the point where the notice says No Persons to Pass this Point or whatever the words are, in which case I can't see a problem?

 

Excellent point, why not just step off the normal plat ?.

 

Are you saying that genuine railway photographers have the right to be on platform ends and encroach down the ramp?
As far as I can see they are members of the public the same as anyone else with no extra rights unless authorised and accompanied by someone official.

Dave B

 

Sounds like more Nanny State Health & Safety gibberish! NR is going to experience some swinging budget cuts, so I really can't see them having the resource to fund work like this. I expect the person that dreamed up this scheme hasn't got the message yet? Perhaps they will do when their P45 lands on their desk? (We can but hope!).

NR & train operators don't have departments working especially to antagonise enthusiasts; they're there to do a job, and sometimes the camera wielding fraternity do get in the way of that.

 

Why do the trains stop at the end of the platform thus "encouraging" people to go down the ramps to take their photos? Most platforms are long enough so that they don't have to do that and it would help prevent people going down the ramps.

 

Why is it considered any more dangerous to stand on the ramp than on the main part of the platform? One is no more likely to be hit by a train! "Nanny State Health & Safety gibberish" it is.

 

Our station ramp has slats so a little impossible to stand on...BUT,fare dodgers galore sprint along the 'slats' in trainers.When your a teen or in your 20s these are not a problem.
...having a level crossing at the end of the platform also makes life very easy for the 'why should I pay' brigade.
As for suicides,a lot are performed these days,not off the platform,but at modern level crossings with these single bars,unlike the old gates which were more difficult to climb.

Actually,railways were much safer in the old days.

 

At St Albans City station on the Midland main line, where the platforms have been extended for 12 coach trains, the extensions have been built without ramps and with a fence across the ends of the platform containing a gate which accesses a short flight of steps to ground level. Could this have been done as a cheaper method than building ramps?

 

I think there is 19th century legislation requiring the railways to have ramps at the end of the platforms. Personally I think that if NR goes ahead and fences the ends of platforms then they will be wasting a great deal of the taxpayers money for very little, or no, gain. Totally crackers!

Regards

 

The point I'm making is putting fencing up at the end of platforms will spoil the photographical view of our railway stations. This could be another way to make railway stations less attractive to rail photographers and could reduce the number of photographers from using railway station in search of their ultimate photo?

 

We have thousands of square miles of urban and countryside to choose from. Why do some feel the need to populate a station, this only antagonises the powers that be, who see us as a nuisance. We have a local phsychiatric hospital with a public foot crossing less than half a mile away, so where do you think potential suicides choose? correct. next thing will be platforms totally enclosed like some underground stations with automatic door opening to carriage doors. So the answer is get out into the countryside and become invisible.

 

A conspiracy theory ? Some heritage railways have done this already (I'm sure)?

 

Why stop there..

why dont they go the Amtrack way..

Some major stations have a "check in area", access to the platform is via an airtight sliding door which only opens when the train arrives.

LUL has this of sorts on the Jubilee line already.
Modern subways around the world have been doing this for decades.

 

Your assuming everyone has access to a car and is not using public transport, even then countryside shots can be difficult to locate down back roads and are getting fewer and fewer as vegetation growth blights then, don't get me wrong i prefer phots out in the open, but people have reasons for choosing stations.

I don't mind fences too much long as you can see over them, something around the 4.5Ft mark with spear points to stop someone climbing over woulden't be so bad, it's the 6 or 8 foot pallisade menace that's an issue.

 

From a photography point of view, at least it might bring an end to the debate about the "passengers must not cross the line" notices...

 

Yet more Anglo-Saxon hysteria! On the Continent, they are not nearly as obsessed about trespass, and people take responsibility for their own safety. Does this neurotic approach result from when William Huskisson, MP, was run over on the opening day of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830? Or perhaps the fear of ambulance chasing, no-win no fee lawyers, who have become such an affliction of late?

Anyway, I thought that we didn't have any spare money for this kind of nonsense, or a bossy nanny state Labour government.