I noticed that high level platforms might be designed in a way that railroad trespassers cant climb, or jump on to them. Is that true? If so how do they expect people who fall on to the tracks by accident to get back up if there is no side step or ladder.
And just how often to you hear about people falling onto the tracks from high level platforms?
If you stay back, like your supose to do, you won’t fall off.
The safety zone is nearly 2 1/2 foot from edge, so if you use your brain you stay behind the yellow line.
If you don’t your potential Darwin award winner and probably should be taken out of gene pool.
Would it too much to expect for someone standing on the platform to reach down and lend a helping hand?
How high are these high platforms? Here in the Netherlands they are about 1 meter high. Depending on your clothes most people would be able to get back on it. Not to mention being able to use the little stairs you can see here and there along the platform.
greetings,
Marc Immeker
In US the high platforms are about 1 meter 40 cm (56 inch) high, the same height as the trains main floor. there are no steps like on Dutch platforms which are about two steps below main floor level.
I’m actually not aware of any high level platform that does not have a staircase or ladder at each end of the platform… at least on the Northeast Corridor. These climbing devices are in or lead to restricted areas and generally used by railroad personal to reach the platform from track level. I suppose if someone fell on the tracks, they could walk to the end of the platform and climb back up.
As for people falling on to the track, that is not only possible but has happen, even with the train in the station. There was at least 2 well publicized incidents here in the New York area in which passengers had walked off the train and fell between the train and the platform on the Long Island Rail Road. Apparently there are many stations on the LIRR in which the gap between the train the platform ranges from 12 to 17 inches. If you don’t watch your step as you ext the train… it’s a 56 inch drop. At least incidents resulted in the victim dying in which the person who fell got hit by an on coming train after crawling under the platform to an adjacent track to escape and alcohol was involved in another. After the recent rash of falls, LIRR has been attempting to fix the gap problem.
Was common for a while on the New York City subway system. Sad to say that some people were pushed. Of course there were those that were drunk or high.
Years back I remember seeing a teen kid drop a hand ball onto the tracks. The ball landed very close to the electrified 3rd rail! A teen girl that was with him jumped right on down and retrieved it! I wonder now if she would have gotten “Kentucky-fried”, if her family would have sued MTA.
US high platforms are higher then British or European high platforms. They are completely flush with the train floor, a very good arrangement.
The ideal solution to people faling, or being pushed off the platforms is to have a well between the rails as on the London tube system. A person falling off the platform drops into the well and the train passes safely over them. Don’t know how often this happens in London. Do any other railroads or subways that you are aware of have these safety wells?
Unfortunetly it(people falling from high level platforms) happens often enough it tends not to get even the front page of most newspapers. Unless there is a TV camera crew there it doesn’t even make the 11 oclock news on TV, unless someone is a fatality.
Most of the notice it gets on the news cycle is because of the train delays .
If I sound kind of cynically bout this My apoligies.
rgds ign
There is story in todays paper (The Cleveland Plain Dealer) about a U.S. Sailor serving aboard the carrier USS Kitty Hawk in Japan. Navy seaman Phil Simmons jumped onto the tracks of an oncoming train to rescue a man who fell from the platform during a seizure. Simmon hurt his leg during the rescue and could not climb back easily. Then the music started to play. Japanese stations play music when a train is approaching. He was able to get back up with just a few seconds to spare. This guy is a true hero.
There was a similar incident in New York about a year ago. It made the papers, and if I remember correctly, the resuer was a Muslim and the one who was rescued was Jewish -or possibly visa versa. In most New York City underground subway stations, and if memory serves, all Penn Station platform tracks, concrete roadbed is used with stub ties encased in concret, and a wide dranage ditch in the center. A person of normal girth hand lie in this ditch and not be grazed by equipment of the trains passing over him. A number of people have survived by doing that.
What made you think that? In the US the platform is rarely if ever more than 1.2 meters above the top of the rail-- so less than 1.4 meters above the ballast. So most trespassers could easily clamber onto them, albeit ungracefully.
Steps at the ends of the platform are common, on the NEC and elsewhere.
I’d guess more often than not there’s plenty of room beneath the platform, if you do fall onto the track. You could sit there and eat your lunch, watching the trains pass.