Detraining at Kennington

[jamesb]

Yesterday, I was at Kennington and a drunk man was refusing to get off the train which had just terminated there. His equally drunk friend was on the platform egging him on to get off.

All the doors were closed together by the driver and the station assistant told the driver about the person refusing to get off. The train drove out the platform with the person still on board and his friend was told by the station assistant that he would end up on the other platform.

I was surprised that they had left him on board because:

1) I assume that the driver would have to change ends and would be alone with a drunk passenger in a tunnel

2) I recall an incident at Liverpool Street years ago where a passenger died attempting to detrain himself in between the carriages in a siding


How come on the Northern line all the doors are closed at once by the driver, whereas on other lines each carriage is closed up using the car end door close button?

[piccboy]

Kennington has both a loop and a siding.

1) If going round the loop, you do not change ends, just drive around.

2) Inter-car barriers are supposed to stop this from happening.

It's a local work practice to speed up turning trains around, with trains arriving every 2-3 mins at Kennington, you would not have enough time to detrain every train.

[stuartroy]

I understand that the Kennington loop is actually rated for passenger use. The main reason they don't like people staying on board is that the trains can sometimes be held there for some time before their next working and passengers can become anxious. It sounds like the gentleman in question was beyond being anxious and perhaps the driver knew that the delay in the loop would be minimal.

I've seen other instances on the Northern where doors are closed individually following a tip-out. In the cases I'm thinking of, this was at Euston (City branch) where the train was heading into the reversing siding which (as I understand) is not passenger rated, so a full tip-out is essential.

[jamesb]

Thank you.

Thats interesting. It must be quite a tight loop? For the train to completely turn?

[John Tuthill]

Dec 8, 2013 17:47:16 GMT jamesb said:

Thank you.

Thats interesting. It must be quite a tight loop? For the train to completely turn?

Check any book on the Northern line. There should be a diagram of the tunnels at Camden Town, and the tunnels at Kennington.

[domh245]

Alternatively, you can look at this website which shows you the layout of the Kennington loop

[jamesb]

thanks. I found a video of someone going around the Kennington loop on youtube.



Learned something new today!

[Deleted]

I've gone around the loop...twice. Bit eerie coming to a halt in a tunnel and knowing your the only person (passenger) on board.

[causton]

When I was last in it the driver made an announcement "To any passengers remaining on this train, you have stayed on too far, this train is now in the process of turning round and will be arriving at the Northbound platform in Kennington in a minute or two" -- considering I'd thought we'd hidden quite well I think it must be a common occurrence to have passengers left on the train, if it's worth making a PA every time you travel round it like I guess this driver did!