Severe delays

[harlesden]

Severe delays on the Bakerloo Line
Severe delays are occurring due to a person ill on a train earlier at Marylebone.

I don't understand how a simple simple incident of a person being ill on a train can cause "severe delays". If it is a minor matter, the person is guided off the train onto the station platform - 10 minutes delay max. If the passenger has actually fainted or collapsed, emergency services are summoned and the person is removed by professionals.
If the latter was the case on this occasion, the station itself would be temporarily closed. Therefore one must assume it was a minor incident.

[Deleted]

Don't assume.

A minor illness would involve the station staff removing the person from the train. Net delay a few mins.

A major illness requiring the attendence of the emergency services will take as long as the paramedics deem the person stable to move. Could be a few mins after their arrival or in really major situations many more minutes.

The station may not close totally, as trains will still be running in the opposite direction, but perhaps the station will be operating "station control" and limiting access.

[Chris M]

A couple of years ago now I was on a rush hour train that was held at Bethnal Green for a good 20 minutes iirc, causing the suspension of the eastbound Central Line (and thus inevitable severe delays later). This was due to a passenger towards the rear of the train suffering a head injury (I was at the opposite end of the train so don't know details). The driver informed us that they would not be moved until the paramedics arrived. The nature of such injuries means that even when the paramedics arrive they would not move the patient until they were stabilised - however long that took.

This disruption was advertised as being the result of a "person ill on a train at Bethnal Green". I don't know any details about the incident today[1], but it is possible that the illness was actually a serious injury.

[1]As an aside, what is the forum policy regarding details of incidents like this?

[Tubeboy]

People are not moved for several reasons. Heavy bleeding, unconscious, neck/spinal injury, pregnant or if a medically qualified person deems it necessary.

As to yesterday, it was an elderly Lady who collapsed and was struggling to breathe, eventually she lost consciousness. *Admins/Mods delete if appropriate*

[harlesden]

Admin are welcome to delete the entire thread if desired. I apologize for not thinking.

[Colin]

Admin Comment:

We don't have a specific policy on this type of discussion, though I'd suggest Tubeboy has perhaps revealed all that needs to be revealed regarding the incident that sparked the thread. As long as nothing more specific about that incident is revealed, I think we're safe to continue a general discussion about PIOT (Person Ill On Train) incidents and how they are dealt with.

Mind you, if this thread does develop into a general discussion on PIOT incidents, we'll probably have to look at either splitting or moving the whole thread to a more appropriate area of the forum....

So on the basis of discussing how this sort of thing goes down in a general manner, there is another reason for not moving persons that always gets missed out in the official instructions........that where a person cannot be moved. Literally!!

There was one recently on the District where a passenger had a fit. Obviously a person cannot be moved whilst they are fitting (though you make the area around them safe if you can), but once the fitting stops, there should be no reason why they cannot be moved onto the platform.

Well on this particular occasion, the person concerned had become so exhausted with the fitting that they needed assistance to get off the train - only trouble was the person was so big that even with the three LU staff on scene the person couldn't actually be assisted off. So the train had to be delayed until the medics arrived, by which time the person had recovered enough to be removed.

Total delay was 25 minutes in the end, but being on a branch at one end, it was only enough to put the line onto minor delays for an hour. Had it been in the Zone 1 area, the service would have been crucified.

That's the thing with PIOT incidents though, they can end up going many different ways and the location & time of day can make all the difference too...

[Deleted]

Nov 19, 2010 22:45:09 GMT @harlesden said:

Admin are welcome to delete the entire thread if desired. I apologize for not thinking.

I don't think you have anything to apologise for, even the wisest person can learn something new every day of their life, the closed mind led to the flat earth society and we all know how wrong they were. There are members of this forum who do not work for any railway administration and there are those of us with many years experience. I believe that a sharing of certain information helps with the understanding of what can and can not go wrong with any incident. If this was the case we may not always find ourselves isolated in the middle of a large angry crowd venting their frustration at the only person they see in a uniform. The one thing to bear in mind is that any information given must be generalised and not personalised and must hold back on any thing that pertains to confidentiality, both to individuals and companies.

[londonse]

I have found when being delayed for what ever reason that there is always a bigger picture.

Paul