Great health and safety gone mad story from the Mail about some CCTV cameras in an underpass that have not been cabled or powered up because TfL say people need special training for it. TfL has said it's all due to the collapse of Metronet of course, but my personal experience of TfL health and safety rulings make me think otherwise.
I use North Greenwich station each day, and about a year or so ago they started to build a stairway down to the platform so they would have extra capacity when the renamed Dome opened for business. The stairs were completed and then stood there with tape stopping you use them for around five months.
When I asked why they were closed I was told that they had not been signed off by health and safety yet so no one could use them. Eventually they were signed off and opened. Then, all of sudden they were closed again due to safety concerns. Now they are open again but they've put that yellow and black stripy taped all the way down the banisters, presumably to warn people that there is a banister there.
Should anyone else have any good TfL craziness do post about it in the comments.
4 comments:
I was on a visit to a dissused tube station some weeks ago, and not withstanding this is now a closed down station, they still maintain the tannoy systems and ensure their exit signage is modern - just in case people are in there.
However, we went into a part of this abandoned station which was not only not used by passengers now - but in fact had never ever been used by passengers - although it had been designed to be.
They had just installed a brand new tannoy there because of H&S requirements.
The public should mutiny. Some years ago I was stuck in a train a few yards out of the station - for twenty minutes. We were in one of the old slam-door carriages. In the end we all got out, jumped down onto the bridge parapet, and walked. And believe it or not, life went on.
Trumpter, a few years ago I was on a slam door train which inexplicably failed to stop at a station which it was supposed to. About 100 people wanted to get off there - I know this because as people realised the train just was not going to stop they flung open the doors.
The driver, realising this, slammed on the brakes. Over the intercom he lambasted passengers for their dangerous actions. Ignoring him, a hundred or so of us trooped to the rear carriage, which was still just about at the platform, and got off and went to work.
And, as in your story, no-one died or was even injured, and life went on.
In the (glorious) woods, adjacent to Westonbirt Arboretum, a wooden track was built in the manner of the ancient "Sweet Track" in Somerset. Very fine it is, too. However, there is a handrail next to it; until recently there was a notice saying that this was not part of the original track, but that H&S regs meant it had to be there.
This is what it looks like. Pretty tough to walk without a handrail, you'd have to say ...
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/aburnham/eng/sweet3.jpg
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