ruggedpeak

As an aside, one thing a lot of Swiss trains, trams and buses have is a pre-arrival facility on fully powered doors. If you push the door button whilst the unit is in motion that door will open as soon as the driver releases the doors at the stop/station. It also lights the button or a separate light by the door to indicate this in operation. I don't know if this helps dwell times but suspect it does have some impact. It is something I always use as it means I don't have to think about waiting to push the button until the door release has been actuated (as against when the train stops!). I get irritated by stock not fitted with! I don't recall it in the UK but I have only used a limited range of stock so may be in use. Anyway, it is a good thing as you can approach the door push the button and know the door will open immediately.

One upside of the this latest WCRC fiasco is that CDL is now widely known about, seems like any reference to railway coaching stock now includes a CDL comment, whether it is Bachmann announcing imminent WCRC coaches coming into stock, Facebook posts or other social and normal media. ESR were highlighting their passenger stock training work for a TOC on Facebook and included confirmation that their Mk2 and Mk3 coaching stock is CDL fitted in the post! A large number of people including a growing portion of the general public are now aware of and expecting CDL on their coaches....so any hope of WCRC avoiding CDL and getting more exemptions are well and truly dead as their own publicity and PR stunts have made sure everyone is aware that coaches on the mainline need CDL and know it is a safety issue. It is difficult not to admire the genius of their entire strategy....🤣

Same here in Switzerland - on the mainline, the single decker Eurocity coaching stock (see below) running major routes right across the country operate this way. Doors are heavy to open, it has to be said, and it often confuses people not familiar with this stock as they stand by the doors waiting for them to open automatically at the station - this is common at Geneva and Geneva airport as this route has a lot of non-Swiss passengers. Whilst the doors open manually, an air system (AFAIK) closes all the doors, this operated by the guard. It reinforces the point about people not being familiar with manual doors these days as many trains have button or automatic door operation. https://www.sbb.ch/en/travel-information/services-on-train/our-trains/eurocity.html

That might actually add up to the £7m figure WCRC was putting out!

FB comment from a local about the Jacobite at 1425 hours: "....I believe it is presently stuck somewhere near Glenfinnan holding up the sprinter..." Several likes suggest perhaps others aware. Looked on RTT, first run of the season so likely to be teething troubles. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:C10935/2024-04-15/detailed 2Y62 1410 Mallaig to Fort William Departing today operated by West Coast Railways This service is cancelled. This service was cancelled due to a problem with a steam locomotive (ME).

LSL announce their trip https://www.facebook.com/share/p/HSLqmkhRhv3FvpyS/ We are delighted to present a day return journey over the world-famous West Highland Jacobite line, featuring some of the most spectacular scenery in Scotland as we cross magnificent bridges and viaducts offering views of tumbling waterfalls, peaceful lochs, and the Isle of Skye. The train departs Fort William at 08.50 for the magnificent 84-mile round trip on the ‘Jacobite’ line to Mallaig - Passing Ben Nevis we travel along the shoreline of Loch Eil and at Glenfinnan cross the viaduct featured in the ‘Harry Potter’ movies offering stunning vistas down Loch Shiel and regarded as the most spectacular view in Britain. There will be a short break in the pretty fishing port of Mallaig from 10.50 to 11.30 before retracing our outward route past the white sands of Morar with an arrival back in Fort William at 13.20. Tickets are available as pay on the day from staff on the train and are priced at £40 per person for adults and £20 per person for under 16’s.

I've just found that Mr Wolmar did a piece in the Spectator entitled "Don’t blame health and safety for killing the Harry Potter steam train" a couple of weeks ago. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/dont-blame-health-and-safety-for-killing-the-harry-potter-steam-train/ He doesn't mince his words: "Should we be tempted to regard the safety risks on a few puffa trains as being nothing much to worry about, it should be noted that West Coast Railways has form on potential dangers of this sort. The company was involved in what, in my 30 years of writing about the railways, came close to becoming one of the worst disasters in British railway history." I will let readers guess what he is referring to.........

Apologies if this has been answered before, but if no ETH loco what powers the CDL?

The upshot of all this is presumably that WCRC will use Mk2def's and everyone will be happier, especially the punters who no longer have to look through steamed up windows on the rare occasions it is cold/damp/raining on the West Coast of Scotland 🤣 . WCRC won't have to employ door stewards. ORR will no doubt do inspections etc, meanwhile LSL have got their foot in the door up there. No one at DfT or ORR was ever going to put their career on the block for WCRC, the naive MP's have been put back in their box, the PR stunts have generated as much anti-WCRC sentiment as pro, especially in Scotland. So what will WCRC have achieved at the end of this? A rhetorical question of course. And of course there is still time for WCRC to go all in and snatch total disaster from the jaws of defeat, who would bet against them doing really dumb even at this stage? Definitely need some TV company to a fly on the wall documentary about WCR's management......

Have an incident on two wheels and it is largely luck what happens. Separating from the bike and sliding across the centre markings into oncoming traffic or street furniture often doesn't go well for example.

Well if the sea is so safe why is there a 200 year organisation that does nothing but rescue people at sea, many of whom started the day on a beach but ended up not on it? You'd have thought in between chuntering and posting in the DM comments section they'd be watching TV, where there is even a BBC series about the RNLI on repeat during the daytime.

Was in the Torygraph yesterday, good to see DfT giving them two fingers!

In other door related news.... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/12/driverless-dlr-train-london-doors-open/ (paywall) Reportedly the DLR train sped towards Bank apparently. From the passenger comments the train was slow to leave Shadwell then stopped. Then it started again and carried on with the door open. Of course there is no driver or door stewards on the DLR. TfL stated there is a staff member on every train, but as DLR units have no connecting corridor and often work in multiple that's as much use as a chocolate teapot if they are in the other unit. Did anyone push the emergency button, no of course not, they were too busy filming it...... I always liked the DLR towards Bank as the tunnel lights reminded me of when the fighters launched in Battlestar Galactica.....

So an English company trying it on and having p1ssed off a lot of Scots trying to use an infamous day when the English thrashed the Scots on the battlefield to garner support in Scotland? Genius.

The Telegraph has just regurgutated the WCRC line and headlined it "Steam trains face end of the line in Britain after row over slamming doors", https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/04/11/steam-trains-face-end-line-britain-row-over-slamming-doors/ paywall The usual WCRC #stuff but concludes: A Department for Transport spokesman said: “The ORR is the independent rail safety regulator, and it would therefore be inappropriate for the department or ministers to intervene in their decision to refuse a further exemption to West Coast Railways, which was upheld by the High Court.”