BBC condones railway trespass

[Steamport Southport]

1 minute ago, Darius43 said:

 

Clearly railway trespass should be their first priority.

 

The (self) righteous indignation expressed on this thread astounds me.

 

Darius

 

So condoning a criminal activity is alright then?

 

The BBC is supposed to be there for three reasons. Enshrined in their charter.

 

Quote

Our mission is "to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain".

 

https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/mission

 

It's nothing to do with indignation. It's what they are supposed to be doing by law.  It's their whole reason for existing.

 

 

 

Jason

[Miserable]

Just to point out that railway fencing almost unique to the UK. There's plenty of cab ride videos from just about anywhere on Youtube to demonstrate the point, barely a fence in sight.

[Robert Shrives]

Yesterday a male was reported walking along cess at Northfield and all traffic was stopped . Person then chose to lay on track  in front of a now stationary train. When police turned up 20 minutes late the male was now sitting between up and down fast.  A 10  minute stand off occurred while police arranged to walk from in front and behind to trap him,promptly carted off.    1S51   1227 Plymouth - Edinburgh was stopped at Bromsgrove - so it was at a platform and NR wanted after 25 minutes to send it to Worcester  and divert via Kidderminster - adding around 90 minutes . However person detained and train was on the move 32 minutes late -38 at BHM having followed local services. Terminated  88 late due to this and a points failure !     Delay minutes due trespass recorded as 423 minutes to the train - but clearly no record of impact to travellers on the network. 

A couple of years ago a west bound Voyager at Bridgwater was cautioned for trespass, stopped and picked up a Polish national walking down cess enroute to Taunton.  Given a lift to meet BTP at Taunton. He explained walking down the cess was safe as he could not be hit by a train - roadside was another matter. He had not however noticed he was walking with his back to traffic - and would have crossed lines to face on coming traffic.  In Poland traffic runs opposite lines to UK.  

Two stories as to the problem trespass gives.  The right answer ? 

Well education  ( thanks not BBC it would seem!) and school visits to get message early - not happened for a while I guess ?  And suitable learning exercise while detained and fined - stick and carrot..    

 I recall talking to an Arriva Wales guard about a Chester driver who was almost into double figures for splats...     Sadly been involved with two double splats with same driver on same day on same  route.  One where also near Exeter a driver did the deed and there ride home  bowled over a person at Bridgwater !  Second was a Grand Central service in North London  A London bound service did for a soul. The set returned north with relief driver and first driver riding in cab when they bowled a second !  Apart from all this distress on the day some poor soul has to pick out the body parts . 

Recently a GW 800 needed nose cone /coupler cover removed  to allow body parts to be recovered.   So really I have to agree with Carrdoc that anything that even suggests trespass as acceptable needs  a corrective comment.   Over sensitive ? I do not know but the feeling of human flesh on hands when pulled out of a 175 is one I will keep!      

[Captain Kernow]

9 hours ago, Darius43 said:

The (self) righteous indignation expressed on this thread astounds me

Forgive me if I have misinterpreted your comments, but I sense that you feel that some of us are over-reacting to the photographs of railway in question.

 

If so, I cordially invite you to express your sentiments directly to the face(s) of those railway staff, who have witnessed the death (or aftermath of same) on the railway.

 

[dibber25]

9 hours ago, Darius43 said:

 

Clearly railway trespass should be their first priority.

 

The (self) righteous indignation expressed on this thread astounds me.

 

Darius

And your attitude astounds me! I expressed no self-righteous indignation. Indeed, if you read further up the thread you'll see that I actually (albeit mildly) defended the BBC's action. In posting the comment about UNICEF I was making the point that the BBC was not alone in its misuse of photographs. Among all of us in the editorial department of the Bauer railway titles this is a perennial topic. Back in the autumn one of my colleagues had a major chain store remove posters advertising branded trainers on the foot of a young fashion model who was climbing from track level onto a station platform. There's no indignation and no self-righteousness involved, just a wish to protect others and especially our friends in the rail industry who, literally, have to pick up the pieces. (CJL)

[Derekl]

28 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

If so, I cordially invite you to express your sentiments directly to the face(s) of those railway staff, who have witnessed the death (or aftermath of same) on the railway.

 

Sorry, this is tripe - the BBC picture clearly shows people crossing a railway bridge in France. As far as I can make out, it is a permitted use of the bridge (indeed, may even be encouraged as a leisure route) and the few trains that run have drivers aware of the potential use, taking the appropriate action.

 

It does not seem that it is likely to lead to the sort of mayhem described in posts above.

 

The fact that we don't have the same arrangements in the UK and regard this as a dangerous practice is not really relevant, other than to perhaps highlight the different approaches.

 

Maybe the BBC should have added words to the effect that you are not permitted to walk on railway track in the UK, but really.....

[Robert Shrives]

Possibly on topic but reports of incident at Worle with lines closed to Weston. 

[pirouets]

Before I type anything else, I just want to say I understand the challenges railway workers face dealing with the lovely public at the best of times and I cannot begin to understand what they face when people are stupid enough to trespass and the consequences that leads to in some cases.

 

I think the key here though is 1 picture on the website and this thread being about the BBC is condoning this as a result. Having done a couple of searches I found Railway Trespass returns 26 pages worth of results, and a random click on links seems to be they are all pretty much articles about the stupidity of people and don't do it. Railway Photo as a search term also returns 7 pages of which some are about people doing daft things including the couple who decided to have wedding photo's on the line some where in Yorkshire.

 

We live in a world these days where a single piece of information can be taken as being the statement of how things are. In this case I don't think the article means the BBC condones trespass and personally I am ok with the labelling as it states its a cycle route in France, but I do understand why some say that in a perfect world, the caption would be clearer.

 

[caradoc]

2 hours ago, Derekl said:

Maybe the BBC should have added words to the effect that you are not permitted to walk on railway track in the UK, but really

 

That is exactly what they should have done (and all they needed to do). 

 

3 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

If so, I cordially invite you to express your sentiments directly to the face(s) of those railway staff, who have witnessed the death (or aftermath of same) on the railway.

 

Absolutely; One member of railway staff worth consulting would be the freight driver whose train struck a trespasser in Scotland, the force of the impact resulted in the victim's head ending up in the cab with him. 

 

[Robert Shrives]

1 hour ago, Robert Shrives said:

Possibly on topic but reports of incident at Worle with lines closed to Weston. 

Declared non suspicious and appears to be a tragic foot crossing bowl over. 

[Captain Kernow]

4 hours ago, Derekl said:

Sorry, this is tripe - the BBC picture clearly shows people crossing a railway bridge in France

Well, as I explained earlier, I have a complete sense of humour failure when it comes to matters of this kind, including your fatuous and absurd rebuttal.

 

There are many people who might look at that photo and (maybe because they don't have the wit to realise otherwise) think that it's 'OK' to do the same in the UK. Alternatively, they might go to France and tragically choose the wrong railway bridge to push their bicycle over.

 

Your crude denial of my (and other's) right to express our concern about such photos would appear to underline the fact that you cannot ever have had to experience the full horror of a railway fatality or deal with the aftermath. Perhaps in your line of work you have had to deal with other horrors, if so, you have my sympathy.

 

I recall to mind in particular an awful incident in Mid-Wales, perhaps some 20 years or so ago, when two young girls were killed by a train, because their parents didn't seem to think that playing on the adjacent railway was a problem.

 

Closer to home, the last fatality that I dealt with, before I retired, involved the death of a male individual, knocked down by a Voyager unit on a main line in the SW. I attended site, to find the BT Police already busy. The person had been decapitated and I noticed that the face of the deceased bore quite a strong resemblance to a friend of mine, who coincidentally lived quite close to the incident. That felt very strange, to say the least, but fortunately for me, it wasn't him.

 

To you or anyone who persists in saying that the posting such images without any explanation or warning is 'OK' and that there is 'context', then I again repeat my invitation to you to repeat this trivialisation of a serious issue directly to the face of railway staff and emergency services who have had to deal with such things.

 

 

[Derekl]

2 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

There are many people who might look at that photo and (maybe because they don't have the wit to realise otherwise) think that it's 'OK' to do the same in the UK. Alternatively, they might go to France and tragically choose the wrong railway bridge to push their bicycle over.

 

Your crude denial of my (and other's) right to express our concern about such photos would appear to underline the fact that you cannot ever have had to experience the full horror of a railway fatality or deal with the aftermath. Perhaps in your line of work you have had to deal with other horrors, if so, you have my sympathy.

 

I recall to mind in particular an awful incident in Mid-Wales, perhaps some 20 years or so ago, when two young girls were killed by a train, because their parents didn't seem to think that playing on the adjacent railway was a problem.

 

Closer to home, the last fatality that I dealt with, before I retired, involved the death of a male individual, knocked down by a Voyager unit on a main line in the SW. I attended site, to find the BT Police already busy. The person had been decapitated and I noticed that the face of the deceased bore quite a strong resemblance to a friend of mine, who coincidentally lived quite close to the incident. That felt very strange, to say the least, but fortunately for me, it wasn't him.

 

To you or anyone who persists in saying that the posting such images without any explanation or warning is 'OK' and that there is 'context', then I again repeat my invitation to you to repeat this trivialisation of a serious issue directly to the face of railway staff and emergency services who have had to deal with such things.

 

 

"Fatuous and absurd rebuttal" - oh well, nothing like reasoned  argument in response.....

 

Do you have any evidence whatsoever that anybody looked at that picture and decided it was okay to walk on a railway line in the UK - the argument is "fatuous and absurd"....

 

"Crude denial" - again, a serious bit of reasoning. It is not a denial, merely pointing out that a photograph of a railway in France doesn't have a great deal to do with the mayhem reported above.

 

I am fully aware of the horrors of fatal accidents and diseases, effects on relatives and other affected and I really don't need to be patronised by you (or anybody else) on the subject.

 

I fully understand the horror that you and any others who have to deal with the after effects of trespass on the railway and, in case you thought otherwise, I clearly deprecate those who do so.  I just don't think this BBC story does anything that is suggested and that the reaction above is largely irrational.

 

It is somewhat offensive to suggest that I am trivialising the issue of the effects of people getting onto railway tracks by merely pointing out the incongruity.

 

Suggesting that because I take the view that this story is not very relevant to the many incidents reported above means I need to repeat something (what) to others is simply a nonsense and not a rational argument.

 

Of course, you are entitled to your views, even if they are nonsense.....