Passengers were evacuated from a train into Manchester after the conductor was left behind at a station.
The conductor was unable to close the door in a carriage from inside the train at Walkden station so got off and tried to close it from the outside. But as it shut, automatically sending a signal to the driver to go, the conductor could not get on in time and the train drove off.
Just after 8am at Moorside station passengers were told to get off the train and had to catch the next one, resulting in a 30-minute delay. Bosses said for safety reasons a train cannot run without its conductor.
Some passengers tweeted their anger at the delay.
One, Luke Smith, wrote on the social networking site: "A train full of people have been chucked out at Moorside and told to wait for the next train."
He added: "The train driver just got off the train in Moorside and left the train, 15 minutes late already. Joke!"
And another passenger, Janet Eastwood, tweeted: "Train from Wigan to Manchester threw us off at Moorside cos [sic] guard got off train. Oh and fares have gone up! Disgusting."
Salford Councillor Iain Lindley, who was on the 07.15 service from Wigan Wallgate to Manchester Victoria, said: "As a regular commuter it is always frustrating when delays happen.
"But it is even more concerning when they are entirely avoidable and put the safety of passengers at risk.
"We were left stranded late for work on an open platform in atrocious weather. It must not happen again."
A Northern Rail Spokesman said: "A door fault at Walkden station resulted in the conductor being off the train as the doors closed and the train departed.
"On arrival at Moorside, its next station, the driver asked all passengers to depart the train, as for safety reasons it is not allowed to proceed without a conductor. We apologise to all customers who were affected by this event."
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This metro system is truly awful !
Now if the tram had driven of without the driver, that would have been cause for concern !
Northern Rail ruins my life - and I pay through the nose for the privilege.
if the conductor is outside the train when the doors shut there will not have been any signal to the driver as the conductor has to manually send a signal
the computer he say NO
how exciting.
It's not 'safety reasons' that disallow trains from running without a conductor, it's the unions who threatened to go on strike if single person operation was introduced.
Not only were the passengers thrown off & told to wait for the next train, the next train was delayed due to this, had to make an additional stop to pick them up - even though Northern Rail knew full well they couldnt pick them up because that next train was overcrowded! I was on the train that supposedly had to pick up stranded passengers, my colleague was on the joke of a service in front who then had to wait further for the 2nd service - arriving AFTER me for his trouble of getting out of bed earlier than necessary. So we were all late. The conductor on our train said he had no information even though we could hear the information loudly from dispatch.
Following on from 'big, blue & prestwich' - staff told me this morning that the conductor had given the double buzz for the driver to go, but the door light stayed on, so the driver will not go with the door light on. That's when the conductor got off, seemingly without advising the driver, perhaps giving our 'new' 20+ year old carriage a kick(??), light went off, driver could go & the calamity that is Northern Rail surfaced.
Perhaps Councillor Iain Lindley could approach GMPTE to ask why they dont do something about it? Goodness knows - I couldnt even get a response off GMPTE in the past!
As for safety....perhaps Northern should think about this on a daily basis when passengers are screemed at, by their staff, to squash up more & more.
big and blue, you are correct, the Guard has to sound his Buzzer twice to the Driver and the Driver then sends 2 Buzz's back before He can depart. There is no automatic signal
Perhaps the "Door shut" signal can be sent to the conductor - he can then signal the driver to leave.
Too easy?
When he went outside to try and shut the doors which side did he expect to be on?
Some people have sawdust for brains.
the conductor, this half god, half saviour of the passenger
- what use in an 'event' exactly would they be when they can't even
get on an off their own train when parked at a station platform?
.........but it's the rules guvnr....
health and safety rule number one: i gnore the following: health and safety , comfort and convenience, common sense, and consideration of the fare paying passenger
how does the train depart if the conductor is not on the train to give the signal to depart? I travel northern rail every day and there is a notification routine they go through to inform the driver it is ok to depart.
Surely Northern have a serious H&S procedural issue if trains can depart using an automatic notification system?
A conductor must signal the driver the RA - with two buzzes...
A signal is required to be sent to the driver !
How come the train was able to leave without its conductor on this line due to Health and Safety tey on many lines in Yorkshire there are no conductors on trains yet they work?
good for you northern rail,safety much more important than being 15 mins late for work. work will still be there tomorrow it wont miss you that much even if you have to take a day off.
I had a sandwich at warrington train station last week. It was quite enjoyable.
I was on a train last night that was delayed by 30 minutes due to problems with the doors openeing/closing at stations. Now that ticket prices have been increased at a rate which even exceeds inflation will there be investment in updating and improving the trains and services? I won't expect any guarantees.
Safety reasons? don't get it.
big and blue, prestwich is correct!
A signal to move off the station is not automatically sent to the driver, the signal to move off from a station is manually input by the guard i.e. the guard presses a signal buzzer pushbutton which rings a bell in the drivers cab. The driver acknowledges this buzzer by pressing his/her signal pushbutton.
The only automatic signal 'sent' to the cab is door interlock. This is obtained when all doors are closed and enables the traction package to be engaged by the driver. This signal is indicated in the drivers cab by the illumination of a blue lamp with the words written underneath it 'Door Interlock'.
No doubt there will be an investigation by Northern Rail into this as either there has been a train fault, or human error.
And don't bother complaining because you don't even get a reply.
I wrote to Northern Rail in June & July 2011, & I'm still waiting for a response.
Yes the letters did get there because they signed for them.
Tel62, you are mistaken, a signal is not sent automatically once all the doors are shut.
The Conductor (or Guard) has to physically press a button, not once but twice, which is located inside the train. This signal "2" (also known as "bell" or "buzzer") tells the driver that "the station duties are complete" and the train may depart. Some train types, like the class 158 in the archive photo shown in this article, has a light or indicator for doors open, other trains have an indication for doors shut - significantly neither of those states authorises a driver to move off, they are merely information.
All of Northern's train are equipped with OTMR ("black boxes") and I suspect, unless there was a serious electrical fault in this safety-critical communication system, the investigation into the incident will quite likely reveal that my unfortunate colleague, departed without authority (from the Conductor), possibly thinking he or she having heard the "buzzer" sound "2". A single "1" means STOP, since that is the easiest signal to send, and most likely signal to sound by itself if there was a short-circuit.
A. Train Driver
Tel62, you are mistaken, a signal is not sent automatically once all the doors are shut.
The Conductor (or Guard) has to physically press a button, not once but twice, which is located inside the train. This signal "2" (also known as "bell" or "buzzer") tells the driver that "the station duties are complete" and the train may depart. Some train types, like the class 158 in the archive photo shown in this article, has a light or indicator for doors open, other trains have an indication for doors shut - significantly neither of those states authorises a driver to move off, they are merely information.
All of Northern's train are equipped with OTMR ("black boxes") and I suspect, unless there was a serious electrical fault in this safety-critical communication system, the investigation into the incident will quite likely reveal that my unfortunate colleague, departed without authority (from the Conductor), possibly thinking he or she having heard the "buzzer" sound "2". A single "1" means STOP, since that is the easiest signal to send, and most likely signal to sound by itself if there was a short-circuit.