Cyclist on the line!

[Night Train]

Arch and I were on the East bound platform of Eccles Station just after lunch today.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=53.485546,-2.333739&spn=0.000891,0.002411&t=h&z=19

We noticed a cyclist riding along the platform. This isn't allowed anyway but what was unusual was that he hadn't brought his bike down the steps to the platform but had joined the platform from somewhere under the car park. Presumably he had ridden there along the ballast at the side of the line.

He proceeded to cycle east bound along the platform, past the 'No Pedestrians' sign, down the ramp at the end of the platform onto the ballast, carried his bike across the freight line (to the north of the passenger lines) and cycled along to under the A576 road bridge. There he walked his bike across all the lines and proceeded to cycle back towards the west bound platform.

By that point I had alerted the ticket office of a cyclist on the lines and the staff and I watched as the chap cycled back onto the platform and proceeded along it.
I then had to run back to the platform as our train was arriving.

The cyclist rode up to the stairs and carried his bike back up to road level.

Most odd!

 

[Arch]

Nutter!

I don't mind idiots getting themselves killed, but I'd rather they didn't hold up the train I want to catch! (or cause trauma to the poor train driver).

No idea what he intended to do, or expected to be able to do. The freight line is bordered on the other side by the motorway, and the other side of the passenger lines is is a steep embankment with a tall wall at the top, so there was nowhere for him to go. He'd have had to cycle a bit further to be able to get off the line, and then he'd only end up back on a motorway junction roundabout.

 

[jazzkat]

Darwinism in action.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

As my girlfriend is ambulance crew, I can only marvel at the astounding stupidity and selfishness of some people.
People hit by trains tend not to stay in one piece, and the resultant clean up takes a heavy toll on those that turn up with the buckets.

 

[flatflr]

See this a lot in Russia, respectable people in suits walking along railway lines. The authorities out there are trying to stop it but as normal everybody is ignoring them.

 

[Night Train]

As my girlfriend is ambulance crew, I can only marvel at the astounding stupidity and selfishness of some people.
People hit by trains tend not to stay in one piece, and the resultant clean up takes a heavy toll on those that turn up with the buckets.

I knew a chap in the London fire service. He was called out, with his crew, to an Underground train service depot. Apparently during a routine service the mechanics found a head wedged in the carriage bogie. How it wasn't found, or noted as missing, at the original incident no one knew. Maybe some assumptions of completeness have to be made when there are many bits to collect up.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Sleep Cycling?

 

[Arch]

Darwinism in action.

But it's not, sadly. If it was, he'd be dead, and therefore unable to breed anymore. As it is, he's gone off home, in one piece, with no consequences.

 

[Soltydog]

Nutter!

I don't mind idiots getting themselves killed, but I'd rather they didn't hold up the train I want to catch! (or cause trauma to the poor train driver).

I certainly would be traumatised if I ran over a decent bike

 

[ColinJ]

But it's not, sadly. If it was, he'd be dead, and therefore unable to breed anymore. As it is, he's gone off home, in one piece, with no consequences.

It's a statistical thing - evolution wouldn't work properly for small populations! One idiot cycling across one railway line once might get away with it but if millions of idiots did it all the time then their numbers would soon tend to get thinned down.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

When you tweeted this I thought you meant he had cycled along the track, as in bumping over the sleepers in the middle!

 

[Night Train]

When you tweeted this I thought you meant he had cycled along the track, as in bumping over the sleepers in the middle!

No, though once he was off the platform he was happily, so it seemed, bumping along the ballast at the edge of the track. Still within striking distance of a passing train though!

 

[Apeman]

We dont have choo-choos where I live

 

[Night Train]

We dont have choo-choos where I live

We don't have choo-choos here either, it's more like grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr of the diesel railcar.

We do have choo-choos at the East Lancs railway, MOSI, and also at the NRM in York though.

 

[Arch]

We dont have choo-choos where I live

Well, on the bright side, you're less likely to be hit by one.

I lived in Belfast for the first 10 years of my life, and I only remember us having one train journey in NI, towards the end of that time, when we had a weekend in Dublin. The only other trains we went on were when we came over to visit Grandma and Grandpa in England. Apparently, the first time, after we'd been going for a while, I asked "Is the train still on the tracks?" I suppose I only saw the tracks in the station, didn't know what happened after that.