LONDON — Britain’s heritage railroads face massive costs, or the possibility of being shut down, in the wake of stringent new safety regulations resulting from the death of a passenger in 2016.
The Telegraph reports that heritage railways must place bars over the drop-down windows of their coaches to prevent passengers from leaning out to take photos while trains are in motion, and must add locking systems that prevent car doors from opening until trains are stopped.
The regulations were issued by the Office of Rail and Road in response to the death of 24-year-old Simon Brown, whose head hit a signal gantry in London while he was leaning out the window of the Gatwick Express train. Operator GoviaThameslink Railway was fined 1 million pounds ($1.25 million) in court last week.
A spokesman for the Northern Belle heritage train told the newspaper that heritage railways have until 2023 to comply, and costs will be significant — about $25,000 per car just for the door-locking systems.
Let’s not consider personal responsibility in cases like this, shall we, it’s never the individuals fault but always the fault of someone else or an organization.
Misleading. The new rules do not apply to heritage railways, only to heritage trains running on the national network.
Sounds like something our very own Delta Dick would come up with!
This is the nanny state in action. How long will it be before, in order to take a train ride, one must be chained to the seat in order to prevent some kind of untoward action?
If you don’t think I’m serious, just give them time.
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn shylock.
You can’t fix stupid. The new reg. is not needed. If the reg wasn’t required when the equipment was built, then it isn’t needed now. Regulators aka beaurocrats always go over board with the regulations. Life has inherent risk. You can’t protect everybody from everything. Just my 2 cents worth.
I go back a year or so when Fred Frailey agreed with a poster that it’s not necessary to photograph trains. This was after a photographer was hit by a train. The poster’s words were to the effect that every moment taking a picture is a moment not watching the train. In response to the poster. Fred asked, who wants to look at the world through a viewfinder?
Here’s how I watch trains: I go to LaGrange, Illinois, where frequent trains of all three flavors (Amtrak, Metra and BNSF freight) pass through a busy village with tons of pedestrian traffic . I blend in. I sit under a tree reading a book. In season, I take a meal at a sidewalk café with a view of the action; there are two such.
As for the fool leaning out the window of a moving train, I have to ask why? Who wants to do that? If he needs a picture of a train that badly, he can buy one. I have a bookshelf full of train books and magazines with professionally shot photos. The last photo of a train I took was maybe ten or twelve years ago. It was a good image but not good enough to submit to TRAINS-MAG, where I can look at great new photos every month.
As for the British government, heritage railways have existed there for decades. Countless thousands have ridden (including me) without incident. One total fool being a total fool isn’t a reason for new rules.
Stupid rule. Nothing will stop the deaths of stupid people.
Looks like Ed Ellis will be selling off yet another Iowa Pacific property he owns in the UK.
The accident occurred on a class 442 unit operated by Gatwick Express. These units do not now work for this operator although a few of them have been transferred to South West Trains (London – Bournemouth – Poole) for refurbishment and continued use.
I am pretty sure that the new safety ruling will affect Mark 1 and any similar coaches running on Network Rail but am doubtful whether it will alter the situation on independent railways such as the Keighley & Worth Valley, Severn Valley, Bluebell etc. They wil need to do risk assessments to confirm their passengers safety but as as they heve lower speed limits – 25 mph – the risk of an accident is much reduced anyway. Most likely to be affected is the North York Moors Railway which uses Network Rail track from Whitby to Grosmont before using its own track onward to Pickering.
For those who may not know, the Gatwick Express is part of the regular passenger operations in Britain, and is not a Heritage Railway. I assume the equipment being used was one of the older sets, although it is quite a few years since I used it to get into London from Gatwick Airport. In later visits I used a stopping train rather than the express since I did not need to go all the way into London Victoria Station.
Hopefully the heritage operations that use their own railways will be granted an exemption. I fear the charters that travel Network Rail will likely be forced to comply or cease. In any event I agree with some of the other posters that it seems an over-reaction to an isolated incident.
The passenger was a railfan. He volunteered at a heritage railway and worked for a major railway company that provides “…rolling stock, signalling services and turnkey.”
Being a railman, this “stupid person” was one of us.