Railway Cuts

[english zloty]

Another of Alfs arms lengths on the horizon 😕 the smaller print suggests promotions and the setting up of yet another Board. So the reverse of savings which are more likely to happen as a result of the fares going up. Because that’s how Govt does savings 

[Non-Believer]

38 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

I do not know which body investigates rail accidents here, but it is not the RAIB. The RAIB publishes all their reports. Some reports get published here, but not all. I have been refused sight to an accident report where someone was permanently injured

The RAIB have no jurisdiction here AFAIK because of our "independence" Crown Dependency status. Accidents/incidents are investigated internally by DOI rail branch and H&S.

[Twitch]

41 minutes ago, Two-lane said:

I do not know which body investigates rail accidents here, but it is not the RAIB. The RAIB publishes all their reports. Some reports get published here, but not all. I have been refused sight to an accident report where someone was permanently injured,

It has been a few years since I worked on the MER, but I doubt there has been any significant change. One (of many) things I found amusing was that sometimes when going in the wrong direction and therefore going onto facing points, I could see that the points had not completely snapped over. So I stopped the tram radioed in, and was told "Get out and give the points a kick"! That happened so many times I gave up with the radio and just got out and gave the points a kick. Of course, if the tram had derailed that would have been my fault.

I am not anti-MER, but there are a lot of problems - all stemming from poor management.

I believe it's the Inspector of Railways who investigates accidents, as required by the Passenger Transport Act? Some bloke from across I would imagine.

[woolley]

14 minutes ago, Blade Runner said:

No not at all and as I said

I just have a bit of engineering knowledge and know that railway is running/ will run out of luck......

DO NOT LET ANY OF YOUR FAMILY OR CLOSE FRIENDS GO ON THE MOUNTAIN RAILWAY IF YOU VALUE THEIR LIVES.

You think nobody has ever looked at the safety aspect of the railway?

[Two-lane]

9 minutes ago, Twitch said:

I believe it's the Inspector of Railways who investigates accidents, as required by the Passenger Transport Act? Some bloke from across I would imagine.

But reports are not always published, and I have reservations about the quality of those that are.

As I am here and in the mood, above I referred to an accident where someone received a severe electric shock on a tram that was in service. An exposed metal surface was live at 500v - If I or most passengers had touched it I would not have survived. The crew member, a young lad, who did touch the surface got permanent damage to his nervous system.

The tram got fixed and was back in service, but I knew that a safety audit was due. That concerned me because I quite like the trams - but some of the repairs made were pretty grim e.g. in plain sight an earthing wire bolted onto a painted surface. I reckoned that if an inspector saw that they would then go through the rest of the operation with a fine-tooth comb with pretty dire results - at that time I did not understand how the IoM government works. So I told an manager-type about what I could see, with the intent that he should get it fixed before the audit. Two hours later I pulled into Laxey station and another manager got on the tram and said the brief words (and nothing more) "Get off the tram, you are suspended".

A few days later they kind of realised that suspending me for reporting electrical faults on a tram where someone had just been severely injured was not in their best interests, so I got reinstated.

The Ranson saga has given some insights into how the DHSS/Manx Care works, but in my experience the DoI is no different at all. And I do not travel on the trams any more.

[Omobono]

God help any enthusiast organisation who takes the railways on , they will be starved of resources  and have to bear the brunt of every tin pot  unqualified expert in Government  who couldn't even run the railways , and be the whipping boy  for every issue  that might arise , including  when and where you blow the whistle on the train , 

micromanaged by ineffective politicians  who are making this Island a laughing stock 

[Passing Time]

1 hour ago, Blade Runner said:

The mountain railway should be shut down before it kills a carriage full of people.

It is intrinsically unsafe because of the way it was designed.

It would take a huge multi million investment to replace the running gear on the trams and make it safe.

DO NOT LET ANY OF YOUR FAMILY OR CLOSE FRIENDS GO ON THE MOUNTAIN RAILWAY IF YOU VALUE THEIR LIVES.

 

You don't half talk some shite son. We get it, you don't like the IOM, get over it and move on

[Passing Time]

1 hour ago, Blade Runner said:

No not at all and as I said

I just have a very tiny bit of engineering knowledge and know that if I keep posting my vitriolic comments people will catch on that I'm just bitter and twisted

Corrected your post for you

[CallMeCurious]

12 hours ago, Omobono said:

God help any enthusiast organisation who takes the railways on , they will be starved of resources  and have to bear the brunt of every tin pot  unqualified expert in Government  who couldn't even run the railways , and be the whipping boy  for every issue  that might arise , including  when and where you blow the whistle on the train , 

micromanaged by ineffective politicians  who are making this Island a laughing stock 

It'll end up like the Queens Pier... a managed decline until someone is desperate enough to volunteer to try to maintain it. The thing is it's not just about the engines and rolling stock or even the station buildings and workshops. It's the 15 miles of track and numerous bridges and crossings to inspect and maintain safely every year.

God only knows how much it'd cost to insure multiple mobile Victorian era steam pressure vessels.

[P.K.]

13 hours ago, Two-lane said:

As I am here and in the mood, above I referred to an accident where someone received a severe electric shock on a tram that was in service. An exposed metal surface was live at 500v - If I or most passengers had touched it I would not have survived. The crew member, a young lad, who did touch the surface got permanent damage to his nervous system.

The tram got fixed and was back in service, but I knew that a safety audit was due. That concerned me because I quite like the trams - but some of the repairs made were pretty grim e.g. in plain sight an earthing wire bolted onto a painted surface. I reckoned that if an inspector saw that they would then go through the rest of the operation with a fine-tooth comb with pretty dire results - at that time I did not understand how the IoM government works. So I told an manager-type about what I could see, with the intent that he should get it fixed before the audit. Two hours later I pulled into Laxey station and another manager got on the tram and said the brief words (and nothing more) "Get off the tram, you are suspended".

A few days later they kind of realised that suspending me for reporting electrical faults on a tram where someone had just been severely injured was not in their best interests, so I got reinstated.

The Ranson saga has given some insights into how the DHSS/Manx Care works, but in my experience the DoI is no different at all. And I do not travel on the trams any more.

@Two-lane

Who was held responsible for nearly killing a fellow employee?

[Zarley]

15 hours ago, Omobono said:

God help any enthusiast organisation who takes the railways on , they will be starved of resources  and have to bear the brunt of every tin pot  unqualified expert in Government, every armchair expert resident, as well as every Manx-hating, vitriolic, ex-resident, who couldn't even run the railways , and be the whipping boy  for every issue  that might arise , including  when and where you blow the whistle on the train , 

micromanaged by ineffective politicians  who are making this Island a laughing stock 

Fixed. 

[Happier diner]

2 hours ago, P.K. said:

@Two-lane

Who was held responsible for nearly killing a fellow employee?

I think there is an ongoing investigation into this.

[Two-lane]

7 hours ago, P.K. said:

Who was held responsible for nearly killing a fellow employee?

The gov. refuses to publish the accident report, and furthermore refuses to publish a redacted version of the report. In other words, the contents are a gov. secret.

Therefore I cannot answer your question and the following is just my opinion about life, the universe and Hollywood starlets.

I used to work as a programmer. You will have seen the films where a Hollywood starlet is sitting at a desk with not a document or specification in sight. She is banging away at the keyboard transferring code directly from her brain into the computer. Some people work that way and some do not.

Most of the work I did was for electronics boxes for aircraft, where safety is important and documentation is essential. At the lowest level someone will take part of the specification and come up with a software design for that bit. Someone else will take the design and create the code. Someone else will test the code to make sure the output meets the spec. Everything is documented and is maintained so that others can go back and verify what has been done.

Now conceptualise an organisation where the managers of *all* levels are nothing other than bus drivers who got lucky, and whose idea of documentation extends no further than a bus timetable, and where the is no monitoring of work, and there is simply no documentation - not even specifying the wire diameters that should be used.

In that situation, when something goes wrong it is not reasonable to blame the lowest level of person.

[Ringy Rose]

On 4/4/2023 at 6:17 PM, Two-lane said:

I do not know which body investigates rail accidents here, but it is not the RAIB. The RAIB publishes all their reports. Some reports get published here, but not all. I have been refused sight to an accident report where someone was permanently injured

The RAIB aren’t quite that transparent. RAIB choose which accidents they are going to investigate, and of those some just receive a “digest” rather than a full report. RAIB don’t discuss which accidents they choose to investigate and which they don’t; their general policy is to investigate accidents where there’s a significant learning opportunity.

There’s a lot of cracks for awkward things to mysteriously disappear down.

[Andy Onchan]

https://www.gov.im/media/1379202/2023-terms-of-reference-eia.pdf