Today (25[SUP]th[/SUP] of February 2016) marked the return of the flying Scotsman traveling under its own power to the city of York where the locomotive is to be on exhibition at the National Railway Museum. It was an occasion that many considered to be an historical day in British rail history and therefore many thousands turned out to see the “old kettle” Pull ten heritage carriages with the on-board enthusiasts paying up to £450 for their seats to its destination.
However, there always has to be those who set out to ruin any great occasion with stupid self-attracting activity and today was no exception. The flying Scotsman was brought to a halt on three occasions during the journey by so-called rail fans (no let us call them by the title they do not like “train spotters”) trespassing on the down side track of the East coast mainline. Of course there activity not only delayed and halted the historic engine but also brought to a halt all other rail traffic on one of Britain’s main transport arteries.
The British transport police along with other security personnel had to be sent out onto the railway to clear these persons which had the mainline closed for over 20 minutes and then brought forward ongoing speed restrictions for several hours following the trespassing. The situation was further exasperated at London’s King’s Cross and other stations where HST services arriving into their destinations found that they had missed their platform slots causing further delays.
Being as it was a normal working day social media and rail forums were quickly inundated with complaints from rail commuters in regard to the event being staged by Network Rail at a peak time on a full working day. Complaints have ranged from people being very late for work, others missing hospital appointments, customer meetings and conferences often posted with “great annoyance” to put it very mildly.
These train spotters must possess brains the size of pea to be walking on or even walking close to the side of that mainline which at peak times can have HST and other services running at up to 120 mph every three minutes in both directions on full working days. This “debacle” comes within a week of West Coast railways (Britain’s largest provider of heritage rail tours) being once again banned from mainline operation for safety malpractices.
In the above, one daily commuter paying thousands of pounds per year for his rail travel demanded on social media that “enough is enough of persons playing choo-choos on Britain’s essential rail transport infrastructure where it is presenting risk and costing time to Britain’s hard-pressed regular rail passengers”.
Many travelling on the railways today will second that posting
Bill
However, there always has to be those who set out to ruin any great occasion with stupid self-attracting activity and today was no exception. The flying Scotsman was brought to a halt on three occasions during the journey by so-called rail fans (no let us call them by the title they do not like “train spotters”) trespassing on the down side track of the East coast mainline. Of course there activity not only delayed and halted the historic engine but also brought to a halt all other rail traffic on one of Britain’s main transport arteries.
The British transport police along with other security personnel had to be sent out onto the railway to clear these persons which had the mainline closed for over 20 minutes and then brought forward ongoing speed restrictions for several hours following the trespassing. The situation was further exasperated at London’s King’s Cross and other stations where HST services arriving into their destinations found that they had missed their platform slots causing further delays.
Being as it was a normal working day social media and rail forums were quickly inundated with complaints from rail commuters in regard to the event being staged by Network Rail at a peak time on a full working day. Complaints have ranged from people being very late for work, others missing hospital appointments, customer meetings and conferences often posted with “great annoyance” to put it very mildly.
These train spotters must possess brains the size of pea to be walking on or even walking close to the side of that mainline which at peak times can have HST and other services running at up to 120 mph every three minutes in both directions on full working days. This “debacle” comes within a week of West Coast railways (Britain’s largest provider of heritage rail tours) being once again banned from mainline operation for safety malpractices.
In the above, one daily commuter paying thousands of pounds per year for his rail travel demanded on social media that “enough is enough of persons playing choo-choos on Britain’s essential rail transport infrastructure where it is presenting risk and costing time to Britain’s hard-pressed regular rail passengers”.
Many travelling on the railways today will second that posting
Bill