Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

metro.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 95 posts

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#11

Post by taway_6PplYu5 »

midasuni wrote: post #8
michaelt wrote: post #2

> Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours. It's a shame train operators don't feel able to make the common sense decision to give the passengers the option to walk before the three hour mark, without requiring them to "smash their way out". Obviously, some passengers won't be able to make the trek, a…

So people walk out after a 10 minute outage, then it’s fixed, but you can’t turn power on because a few people have decided to go for a stroll?

yes, because what if one of those people is touching the power rail? What do we know about the demographics of the people walking? How do we know they all made it out, or is someone lying down somewhere on the track?

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#12

Post by rsynnott »

michaelt wrote: post #2

> Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours. It's a shame train operators don't feel able to make the common sense decision to give the passengers the option to walk before the three hour mark, without requiring them to "smash their way out". Obviously, some passengers won't be able to make the trek, a…

London trains are mostly third rail powered rather than overhead line, right? You really don't want people walking on one of those. Like, you don't want people walking on any train line, but particularly not one with a third rail.

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#13

Post by lotsofpulp »

midasuni wrote: post #8
michaelt wrote: post #2

> Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours. It's a shame train operators don't feel able to make the common sense decision to give the passengers the option to walk before the three hour mark, without requiring them to "smash their way out". Obviously, some passengers won't be able to make the trek, a…

So people walk out after a 10 minute outage, then it’s fixed, but you can’t turn power on because a few people have decided to go for a stroll?

Hence the different protocols needed for a 10 minute outage and a 3 hour outage.

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#14

Post by seabass-labrax »

midasuni wrote: post #5

“New” That rail line, and Ladbroke Grove in particular, dates back nearly 200 years.

That's referring to the Elizabeth line, which opened in 2022:

> "Trains stopped running between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport in the rush hour after damage to overhead cables, shutting down the £19billion Elizabeth Line and causing major disruption to National Rail and Heathrow Express services."

This point notwithstanding, it's not clear whether the 'cold and angry' passengers were those on the Elizabeth line - I doubt it, as the class 345 trains used on it have at least a 190Ah battery in each car that should stop the temperatures from getting too uncomfortable.

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#15

Post by seabass-labrax »

rsynnott wrote: post #12
michaelt wrote: post #2

> Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours. It's a shame train operators don't feel able to make the common sense decision to give the passengers the option to walk before the three hour mark, without requiring them to "smash their way out". Obviously, some passengers won't be able to make the trek, a…

London trains are mostly third rail powered rather than overhead line, right? You really don't want people walking on one of those. Like, you don't want people walking on any train line, but particularly not one with a third rail.

It's very hard to tell with the Metro's haphazard writing style, but it sounds like the passengers walking on the lines were on the Elizabeth line. That's one of the Transport for London lines which uses overhead power rather than third rail.

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#16

Post by vinay427 »

rsynnott wrote: post #12
michaelt wrote: post #2

> Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours. It's a shame train operators don't feel able to make the common sense decision to give the passengers the option to walk before the three hour mark, without requiring them to "smash their way out". Obviously, some passengers won't be able to make the trek, a…

London trains are mostly third rail powered rather than overhead line, right? You really don't want people walking on one of those. Like, you don't want people walking on any train line, but particularly not one with a third rail.

These are mainline trains between Paddington and Acton Main Line which use overhead power lines, not a third rail as with Underground services.

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#17

Post by yabones »

rsynnott wrote: post #12
michaelt wrote: post #2

> Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours. It's a shame train operators don't feel able to make the common sense decision to give the passengers the option to walk before the three hour mark, without requiring them to "smash their way out". Obviously, some passengers won't be able to make the trek, a…

London trains are mostly third rail powered rather than overhead line, right? You really don't want people walking on one of those. Like, you don't want people walking on any train line, but particularly not one with a third rail.

The old-style "tube" trains are all DC third rail IIRC, but the newer trainsets such as the Elizabeth and Thameslink are all overhead AC. So this would actually be one of the few metro trains where it would be remotely safe to walk the tracks provided all the trains were stopped...

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#18

Post by RDaneel0livaw »

michaelt wrote: post #2

> Some frustrated travellers even smashed their way out the cold, dark trains and walked down the tracks to escape after getting stuck for more than three hours. It's a shame train operators don't feel able to make the common sense decision to give the passengers the option to walk before the three hour mark, without requiring them to "smash their way out". Obviously, some passengers won't be able to make the trek, a…

I'm frankly astonished it took people 3 hrs to smash the windows and get out. I'd have politely asked the operator to open it up and let us all out after the 1h mark and if they didn't I would smash the shit out of a window and crawl out. No chance I would sit in there for 3 hours.

Re: London trains see power cut as thousands stranded in dark for hours

#20

Post by miyuru »

seabass-labrax wrote: post #14
midasuni wrote: post #5

“New” That rail line, and Ladbroke Grove in particular, dates back nearly 200 years.

That's referring to the Elizabeth line, which opened in 2022: > "Trains stopped running between London Paddington and Heathrow Airport in the rush hour after damage to overhead cables, shutting down the £19billion Elizabeth Line and causing major disruption to National Rail and Heathrow Express services." This point notwithstanding, it's not clear whether the 'cold and angry' passengers were those on the Elizabeth li…

> the class 345 trains used on it have at least a 190Ah battery in each car that should stop the temperatures from getting too uncomfortable.

mentioned in the article

"Eventually, the battery backup running the train’s heating and light services ran out, and passengers were left in darkness for another hour-and-a-half until the evacuation came."

Post reply on HN