You're Supposed to Stop at the Train Stop Not After It

[purplecat41877]

Yesterday, when I was waiting for the train, it drove past the stop and stopped after the stop. One lady getting off wanted to know what their problem was. I mentioned that I wondering the same thing. I tried to go to the door further up but I nearly tripped on some rocks so I decided to use the door that I was near.

On the way back, the train nearly missed a couple stops and ended up backing up to the right place. When I got off at my stop to go home, the train had stopped after the train stop.

[Chromatix]

Two possibilities:

- Bad driver. Needs to be reported - a train driver who can't stop accurately is a liability.

- Bad brakes and/or poor rail adhesion. Coupled with a driver who doesn't know how to compensate for these conditions. Also needs to be reported - bad brakes are a liability and so is a bad driver.

Now I do appreciate that stopping a train accurately is a skill that is difficult to acquire. The distances are longer than in a car (because steel/steel friction is less than rubber/tarmac), and the speeds are higher and harder to judge.

But if you've been trained properly, you will have acquired that skill. Also, once you *are* a train driver, that skill wil be reinforced on every trip.

You might want to check the news for any reported train accidents - such as, for example, hitting the buffer stops in a terminus or depot.

[smileyeagle1021]

The distances are longer than in a car (because steel/steel friction is less than rubber/tarmac), and the speeds are higher and harder to judge.

.

nitpick/ the OP didn't mention weather, but at least with steel/steel the traction is more consistent in different weather conditions than rubber/asphalt /endnitpick

that said, I do agree wholeheartedly that if a driver is properly trained there is no reason to significantly miss the stop (you know, if the doors aren't lined up properly with the marks on the ground I wouldn't panic, but missing the station all together is a problem).

[Misanthropical]

Maybe the driver is new and hasn't figured out the right place to stop to get people to the proper place, yet.

[Chromatix]

Maybe the driver is new and hasn't figured out the right place to stop to get people to the proper place, yet.

I suspect that's another thing that gets covered in training - if in doubt, slow down early. You can always ease off the brakes to adjust the stopping distance. It's also common sense. You don't want a driver without common sense.

The reason I mentioned rail adhesion is that, at this time of year, you can get Leaves On The Line. It turns out that while the leaves themselves aren't much of a problem, crushed, wet leaves are the railway equivalent of black ice - and even sand, the usual solution to poor rail adhesion, doesn't help.

A competent driver will compensate for this, though he'll probably lose some time over it, because he can't accelerate as hard and will need to brake earlier. Some areas also have special trains which regularly remove the gunge from the rails.

[blas]

I take back all the mean things I ever said about my car. I need to go hump the shifter now.......

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I take back all the mean things I ever said about my car. I need to go hump the shifter now.......

[smileyeagle1021]

Irv, I knew it was only a matter of time befire you posted that

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

You know me too well, smiley.

[Bandit]

If it was a one-off, it could have been a brain burp.

A couple of jobs ago, I commuted by train. On the way back, they would have some staggered-stop trains. These were where train 1 would stop at stations A, B, and C and the skip D, E, and F before stopping at G. Train 2 would skip A, B, and C, and stop at the others.

One day, knackered after a long day, I was on train 2, and they went flying through station F before stopping and backing up. Seems the driver had done two train 1 runs that day and was at the end of his shifted, and just forgot he had to stop.

I was in the car with the conductor. Was very amusing to hear that conversation over the radio.

B