The Office of Rail and Road has released a statement regarding the issues of concern found with the Jacobite steam train.
Back on Friday 9th June 2023, a safety inspector visited the Jacobite service, and found failings which were considered a breach of Health and Safety.
The ORR issued West Coast Railways with a prohibition notice that came into effect on the 15th June and prevented them running the Jacobite until the ORR was satisfied that the issues were rectified.
Fast forward to the 14th July and a further inspection found failings that breached the earlier prohibition notice and the conditions in WCRC's Railway Safety Regulation Exemption Certificate.
The exemption certificate is needed for operators who want to use carriages without central door locking.
Due to safety issues, the ORR has revoked the Exemption Certificate for The Jacobite, but means WCRC can still use carriages without central door locking on other services with the conditions of a new exemption certificate.
The ORR says it is working with West Coast to make sure robust safety arrangements are in place which will allow the use of heritage carriages on The Jacobite in the near future, and in the mean time, WCRC can use alternative carriages to operate The Jacobite.
The full statement from the ORR reads:
“A safety inspector from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) visited the Jacobite service run by West Coast Railway Company Limited (WCRCL) on Friday 9 June 2023. This inspection found safety failings which ORR considered breached Health and Safety Legislation and accordingly ORR issued WCRCL with a prohibition notice which came into effect at 00:01 on 15 June 2023 and which prevented it from running until WCRCL was satisfied that it could rectify the issues raised in that notice. The prohibition notice is published at P/KB/14062023 West Coast Railway Company Ltd prohibition notice (windows.net). The Jacobite service recommenced on 15 June 2023.
Safety inspectors from ORR subsequently visited the Jacobite service run by WCRCL on Friday 14 July. This inspection found safety failings which ORR considered breached the earlier prohibition notice and the conditions contained in WCRCL's Railway Safety Regulation Exemption Certificate. This type of exemption certificate is required for all train operators who want to use carriages without central door locking fitted – ordinarily heritage carriages of the type used on the Jacobite service. Due to the safety issues identified, ORR has revoked WCRCL's Exemption Certificate. WCRCL will continue to be able to use carriages without central door locking fitted on its other services in accordance with the conditions of a new Exemption Certificate.
ORR is working with WCRCL to ensure robust safety arrangements are in place to allow WCRCL to use heritage carriages on the Jacobite line in the near future. In the interim, it is open to WCRCL to use alternative carriages to operate the Jacobite service.”
The train operators of regular service trains have risk assessed and constantly push for trains not requiring guards. Network Rail and the rail operators have risk assessed that stations can be completed unattended by any staff. Rail track crossings are risk assessed and deemed safe to be unmanned. Then managing safety matters using classic carriages should be possible without this fiasco. The ORR and WCR are both guilty of letting down the customers and those businesses who rely on The Jacobite for income. Sort it out guys it is embarrassing having this rolling cancellation policy.
Firstly I have been railtouring for sixty years now. The experience is all encompasssimg – but for me if I don’t go home without cinders in my hair, it wasn’t a day out! I am still here, alive, have never fallen out of a door or been injured in any way. QED!
What exactly is the real level of risk the ORR are seeking to avoid if there have been no issues whatsoever on this service in its forty years of existence?? except those created by the inquisitorial H & S Executive. Safety at work – yes – of course. Obesessive Restrictions dreamt up in a crusade to exclude all and every possibility – No! We are talking nearly 5m riders over forty years – no injuries – no deaths – no incidents. Are these people real???
And finally – hasn’t the DFT already killed some forty poor souls on their criminally initiated smart motorways so they have clean hands don’t they and different standards across departments……….
I haven’t been on any tour for some four years due to Covid – but I’m not paying anyone three figures or so to sit in a hermetically sealed compartment insulated from the real experiences of life anywhere – I lose. The Local Economy loses, We all lose!! Silverton and Durango anyone, or the Royal Scoteman open balcony car???
Surely one of the pleasures of a trip on the Jacobite would be to ” head out” listening to the engine working hard and enjoying the scenery, whilst personally accepting the risks involved and having been warned either verbally or by notice that there was a risk. A leaflet explaining the door locking system and the dangers of leaning out, together with tannoy announcements, with the risk devolved to the passenger would seem proportionate. Or are all the pleasures in life to be denied on the alter of correctness?
Typical WCR. They seem to think rules apply to everyone else
Other charter companies have fitted central locking, so why is WCRC so different that they had to be given an exemption, which they have now breached.
The ORR could easily turn round and shut down WCRC permanently, and that would then mean no Jacobite and the companies who use WCRC stock gone as well.
It’s now time for the MD of WCRC to get the work done and stop moaning.
Central locking !!??….. these are “heritage” carriages for goodness sake !. Perhaps a sticker on each door would remind people to shut the door safely and don’t stick your head out of the window. H&S gone mad.
The idiots from ORR obviously know nothing about old carriages. The word Heritage should give them a clue! I wonder if I need to fit central locking to my Morris Minor?
You got to remember that the general public are idiots, and will open doors on a moving train.
Sorry but it’s true.
Has your Moggie got seat belts, mine didn’t have any!
I concur with a lot of the comments.
It beggars belief that the educated (probably young) people of today cannot operate a door without some form of automation doing it for them (where’s the push button?).
Perhaps they never use public toilet cubicles where you have to physically use a lock!
I see a future where a room full of young adults are stuck and desperately using their mobile phones in an attempt to have someone push a button to open the door for them.
Human evolution will probably result in us returning to a puddle of jelly ruled by AI; however, for now I’ll enjoy the heritage railways while I can (Choo Choo).
😉
Experience on the Severn Valley shows that some people genuinely are standing around with no idea how to operate the doors.
I remember getting the ‘Asembly Express’ from Chester as far as Shrewsbury, which uses ex-BR intercity rolling stock. It was entertaining, the students leaving the train at Shrewsbury didn’t know how to exit the train. Us old school types had to demonstrate! They looked somewhat flummoxed when we pushed the window down and opened the door using the hand on the outside! Nostalgia!
Usual H &S overkill. Slam door stock has been running on railways since time began. Why the issues today? I sometimes wonder about the competence of these ORR inspectors and ask if they have any experience of historical stuff.
So you think it’s OK to stick your head out of a moving carriage window, and be decapitated?
The rule is vestibules must be stewarded, and it seems that has not been done. Also passengers have been asked to slide the secondary bolts, which is not their responsibility, but that of the stewards.
You would need a very long neck to be decapited! People like to get smuts in their eyes and smell the smoke. You stay in your seat Colin and leave people to make their own minds up.
Decapitation is the extreme. But the sad reality today is the railway is not the pristine cut back cess and embankments of yesteryear. Trees and bushes often glance the side of trains especially after heavy rainfall where the foliage hangs. I am a driver for EMR and on our 15X fleet with seat position far left we can open the window, I have been slapped by bushes countless times whilst looking backwards. All it takes is for one passenger to get slapped by a bush for WCR to be sued- or a stray branch could seriously hurt someone.
This is not H&S gone mad- it is quite sensible in this day and age with such poor foliage control.
Well said Driver. Let’s not forget a woman was killed by a branch sticking her head out of an HST window, and there was a Bluebell volunteer whose head struck a line side object in south London.
It happens, and is it acceptable to ignore those risks? Of course not.
Central locking…!!! Can hardly believe it..
Cannot even open windows now..
I remember when windows were lowered on leather straps …
Locking between carriages seems nonsensical
Load of nonsense no one has fallen out of the jacobite coaches ever it’s all power control by over zealous health and safety nutters
Perhaps I’ve missed something, but the ‘slam door’ type of carriage have been used for 70+ years. As there’s nowhere to detrain between Fort William and Mallaig, the carriages could be locked by the staff, if opening the doors whilst the train is in motion, proves to be an issue? I have never seen this happen!!
It’s not a case of H&S gone mad, it’s risk aversion.
Even the 1950s designed & built class 501s had to have window bars fitted from new, over the windows apertures, due to limited clearance in Hampstead tunnel, to avoid the risk of decapitation.
Also in the 1970s & 80s slamdoor EMUs used to regularly have doors damaged or ripped from their hinges due to vandal’s opening them while on the move!
They also used to rip seat squabs from the frame & throw them out the open door, the LTS & GEML trackside used to be littered with them.
All intercity Mk2 & Mk3s were retrofitted with CDL back in the 1990s.
That is what the orange light by the door signifies,
that the CDL is unlocked,
& goes out when re-locked,
which was all done remotely by the guard (remember them?)
at any of the control panels throughout the train.
These companies heritage rail tour companies have had decades to retrofit their stock!
There are unfortunately many idiots out there, & generally it’s not them that get hurt by their actions, it’s other innocent people.
They normally call at Glenfinnan and Arisaig en route, but for years a simple “Caution- do not lean out of the window” notice was deemed sufficient. Not any more, it seems!!