All Paddington trains cancelled until further notice - AIBU?

[ChocolateFrogs]

I'm at Paddington waiting for a train that was meant to leave around fifteen minutes ago.

I've found out that a person has been hit by a train at Hayes and Harlington. All trains on all lines at Paddington have now been cancelled until further notice.

AIBU in asking you if you think that Paddington could have handled this better? Why have all trains been cancelled? Many don't operate on lines that pass near Hayes and Harlington.

BikeRunSki - read the OP's opening post!

Another voicing agreement about sparing a thought for those who are dealing with it. My sister used to be a paramedic in Slough and attended to the aftermath of a few jumpers over the years. She visibly flinches at railway stations now if the train doesn't stop. I don't think she'll ever fully get over the things she's seen and had to deal with.

Hayes and Harlington has a bit of "history" with suicides there i believe its due to the Asian community in the area

Those pesky Asians

Another way to get to Cheltenham is to take a train from Euston to Birmingham New Street (fast is 1.5 hrs), and then get one back down to Cheltenham (between 30-40mins).

It's clear OP made a mistake. And also that she acknowledges it. If she's learned something useful from the thread it's best to give her a break.

I worked on the railway for many years, BRB, InterCity Great Western, Railtrack, and have seen the aftermath of a death on the track. It's treated as a crime scene and there will be a careful investigation, as quickly as possible commensurate with being thorough, collecting all the evidence and remains which might have to be searched for. There will be a cleaning up, being respectful of the deceased, and this can be extremely unpleasant and traumatic, both for the clean-up crew and especially the driver.

The train will be taken out of service, the passengers transferred and the train taken to Old Oak Common for cleaning.

Everyone involved will be working to get passengers back on their way as soon as possible, but there are absolute legal requirements, both for the death and for railway operations, that have to be complied with. It's hard to be patient when you need to be somewhere, but it's a well organised process; unfortunately railway staff and first responders have had a lot of experience of doing this.

Migraleve my coments re the Asian population in that area were not to be taken like that at all, it was to highlight the predicament a lot of women find themselves in.

www.standard.co.uk/news/abused-asian-women-behind-soaring-toll-of-railway-suicides-6614996.html

'I believe it's to do with the Asian community'.

FFS.

You probably 'believe' quiet a lot and regurgitate the shite, Justaboy.

It may just be a couple of hours before they reopen the track; it may be overnight (if anything is suspicious about it). They have to turn off the electricity so crews can work safely on the tracks; this effects all tracks in the area and cannot be limited to just one.

You can also use Reading to get Cheltenham (South West Trains which run from Richmond - just down on the district line from Paddington (You'll have to change branches at earl's court).

"Today 18:49 Didyoumeantobesorude1

I am sorry for the person and their relatives, but much more sorry for the train drivers who have to cope with these events."

You feel more sorry for a train driver who had a person hit their train than the family of someone who has died? Seriously? More?

Just a boy has a point. It is a pretty well known suicide place and the number of Asian women taking their lives in this manner is disproportionate but let's accuse Justaboy of racism because that is so much easier than acknowledging that different communities have different issues and challenges we need to address as a society.

Pannnn No not regurgitated shite just google it a bit and refer to the article i quoted about and perhaps you'll understand why i highlighted this area and the reasons behind it and please note the contend in the title of that article.

Reading trains go from Waterloo - Bakerloo line from Paddington - then change for Cheltenham on FGW? Assuming FGW are running trains further down the line, of course.

To be fair to the OP, if you are just looking at a route map, you may well not realise the huge number of trains that use a small number of lines out of the major London stations. The route maps generally don't reflect topography particularly accurately - that's why you get so many tourists doing 3 changes on the tube and taking 25 minutes when they could have walked it in 5.

Horrible news, and horrible for everyone involved 😔

No justaboy - read that article carefully, and who has recorded what and guessing why. It's also an item 10 yrs old.
Pointing to today;s incident as likely to be an "Asian explanation" is absurd. Unless you wished to believe it.

Until the police have figured out what exactly happened it will be a crime scene. Only once the police have released the scene after taking witness statements from the driver, people standing on the platform, viewing CCTV etc can they start cleaning up the remaining blood and guts. The train could be damaged and require temporarily fixing before it can be moved. Replacement staff will need to be taken to the train to move it. The passengers who will have been stranded on the train will need dealing with. Etc etc etc

Autofillcontact Train drivers do take it very hard, they are involved in a death that they have no control over at all. It takes quite some distance to stop several hundred ton's of metal from the normal line speeds that trains run at.

Its not unknown for them to end their driving careers over incidents like this.

And yes of course it is very difficult for the relatives I do know that

You feel more sorry for a train driver who had a person hit their train than the family of someone who has died? Seriously? More?
The driver probably looked into their eyes as they hit them. Their head may have exploded on impact, or come through the windscreen. You get the picture.

I have a good understanding at how awful it must be to witness a suicide as part of your work. I'm not devoid of imagination.

But it's nothing like losing your spouse or sibling or parent.

You're welcome for the support OP.

AIBU is well known as a lovely gentle place for a hand hold and a bit of transport planning advice after all

and for you

How do you know it seems really petty to compare suffering. I have seen people die in horrendous circumstances and the suffering is there albeit different, How dare you compare suffering on some sort of scale of spouse verus train driver. The guilt can be debilitating as can losing family, it's not a competition.

Let's not turn this into a debate about who has suffered more in the aftermath of a suicide

We don't actually know it was a suicide.

And to be honest, it's incredibly ghoulish to play a game of one upmanship in any relation to suicide... or any other death.

It's horrific. That's all that needs to be said.

Sorry, Autofillcontact, it can be just as hard on the driver, or harder. The experience of a collision with another human being. knowing in those few seconds before what's going to happen, and the actual physical mess and possible injury, is a horror that doesn't leave the driver. Like bereavement, it just has to be lived with, a place inside made for it and scarred over, but it doesn't heal. Counselling is automatic and very necessary; it can help, but as said upthread, some drivers just have to give up their jobs because of the effect on them.

Like everyone else in the railway industry I've seen the video taken from the cab of a train running at high speed on the West Coast Main Line, of someone scrambling down one side of a cutting, very narrowly missing the train, and disappearing out of view on the other side. I've haven't forgotten those few seconds several decades later, and remembering it still makes me shiver. So what does every driver involved in a fatality live with? It doesn't bear thinking about.

A local bus driver killed himself a few years back because he killed a pedestrian. He was found to be absolutely not at fault but it didn't bring him any comfort. A few months after the enquiry was complete he overdosed.

This who suffers most is diabolical to read. EVERYONE be them family, friends, driver or emergency services will be affected by this.

My Dad used to be train driver, railway suicides really have some awful traumatic effects on the staff / public involved, not just because of the gruesome bits but because of the horrible thought of how utterly desperate the person must have been to do that.

I remember my Dad coming home after the first time it happened and we had to go to bed early because he didn't want us to see him like that.
What a sad thing to happen all round, I find it hard to think that someone somewhere is getting or has had some terrible life changing news.

But it's nothing like losing your spouse or sibling or parent.

I lost my dad in a similar way. I often think about the driver who hit him. I think I'd rather live with my pain than his/hers. I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like to see that from the drivers seat.