Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
As a country we have evidently become raving mad, if this latest health and safety nonsense is anything to go by.
Ian Faletto was the station master at Lymington Station.
On seeing a supermarket trolley lying on the tracks in March he decided to remove it, lest it cause an accident.
Can you guess what happened next children?
Yes, that's right, South West Trains (his employer) sacked him for gross misconduct.
South West Trains ban staff from going onto the line unless it is an emergency, or they are trying to prevent a disaster.
Ermm...isn't that the case here then?
As said, as a country we have gone raving mad!
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I suspect they just wanted to get rid of him.....He has, according to the TV, lost his pension too....This has saved the company a fortune.
ReplyDeleteSWT are owned by Stagecoach, one must be careful what one says as they are known for rushing to court but, within the industry, they are known as Slave Coach.
Of course the other possibility is that this gentleman took customer care very seriously and modern companies don't really like that, as it makes the rest of them look bad.
If removing a trolly from the line isn't an emergency nor affects 'elf'n'safety, I don't know what does.
Its no good blaming the railway comapny. The essential, before this contry ties itself in a knot where no-one can lift a finger to help anyone else or do anything productive, is to roll back this curse of elfinsafety. But how? It seems so deeply entrenched in te mind of the nation's officeholders as to be getting worse despite the ridicule poured on it.
ReplyDeleteI suspect there may also be some sort of turf war between Stagecoach and Network Rail going on here.
ReplyDeleteI have seen some crass decisions taken in order to appease elf'n'safety rules, but this really takes the biscuit! Would his employers rather a supermarket trolley was left on the line and a serious accident, with many fatalities occurred? Instead of the sack, Mr Faletto should have been promoted. I hope he takes his employers to an industrial tribunal, and he receives a generous award, the bill for which, in my humble opinion, should be settled by whoever made the decision to sack him, not the taxpayer, nor, in my view, should any fares increase be allowed to fund it either!
ReplyDeleteJust how had Mr Faletto broken any health and safety guidelines as apart from brain-dead management 'elf'n'safety diktat? He had arranged for the power to be disconnected from the third rail and will have known when a train was due. Furthermore the signalmen had been alerted so presumably the signals on the affected section had been set to red?
ReplyDeleteBack in the days of British Rail Mr. Falatto's action would have been seen as a part of the job with possibly commendation for quick-thinking action that could have saved lives. Perhaps SlaveCoach actually wanted an excuse to close the station so a conscientious, well-liked stationmaster was getting in the way? Ha! I know what was wrong - he probably didn't don a Hi-Vis jacket before removing the shopping trolley!! A nice buttonhole doesn't go with Nanny's fetish clobber.
By all rights, the supermarket trolley should have been left on the tracks and not removed. The next incoming train would either have to slow down and stop or else smash into it and be derailed. In either outcome, this would have led to a great deal of public attention drawn to the unionized company employees and government bureaucrats required to save the day, made for great BBC headlines and resulted in a strong tear-jerking story in the MSM as to why strong unions, government bureaucracy and more health and safety regulations are required - since they could be portrayed as the saviour heroes in the resulting chaos from the act of simply leaving the trolley lie across the tracks in the first place and not removing it. Thus a very good public relations opportunity was effectively thwarted by this selfish employee who stupidly removed the trolley instead of minding his own business.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why people unfamiliar with the railways insist on commenting on them.
ReplyDelete1) Removing things from the line is not part of his job and he is not trained to do so. He put his life and the lives of others at risk by trespassing on the railway line.
2) His duty was to inform others of the obstruction. He decided to play hero instead for some reason.
3_ His job was to sell tickets for South West Trains. Neither he nor South West Trains themselves are responsible for the infrastructure of the railway itself which is the responsibility of Network Rail.
4) As a ticket seller he wouldn't have been able to just have the current shut off on the line, and the line was, in fact, live.
5) The trolly had been dumped in a place where trains go extremely slowly. There was zero chance of something as light as trolly causing a derailment.