Questions for any London Underground workers/experts

[filthiestfis]

Yesterday, the regular commuters of London were subjected to severe delays on the central line because of a person under a train. These seem to happen quite regularly. I have a few questions on this subject. First of all, WHY does a person under a train cause severe delays? After all, trains are still passing through the affected area, following the incident.
Secondly, when they report this, does it mean that the person was run over, or that they were found attempting it?
Thirdly, has anyone seen this happening? Do they choose to get run over at a station or do they somehow make their way inside a tunnel or hide under the platform?
It does happen often but I have never seen someone jumping in front of a train in front of me, nor do I know of anyone who has seen it.

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

I've not worked on the London Underground but I used to run a (mainline) rail station. I suspect that the problems and procedures are fairly similar.

Approx 350 people a year (i.e. roughly one a day) commit suicide on the national rail network. During the 4 years I ran a medium-sized station, I never witnessed anyone actually 'jumping' but there was one occasion when I had to get all trains through the station brought to a halt because of a guy who was determined to end his life. However, there were plenty of occasions when trains were delayed because of a report of 'one under' at stations further along the line.

As soon as a 'one under' report is received, all trains in the area are brought to a halt, so that the situation can be assessed and the appropriate action taken. Not all suicide attempts are successful so, in some cases, emergency workers will have to try to get the person out from under the train, while giving the same sort of medical care that's given to people trapped in their cars after a road crash. In other cases, there's nothing to do other than to (quite literally) pick up the pieces.

On the Underground, the emergency teams can't do their jobs with the power switched on, so the section of track will be isolated while they're at work. To complicate matters further, there's always the possibility that the person was pushed (or that an employee was criminally negligent by allowing a dangerously large number of people onto the platform). For this reason, every incident is initially treated, by the British Transport Police, as a crime scene.

[Buenchico]

Also, a collision with a fairly solid object (such as a human body) might damage the train itself. No train can be allowed to proceed until a mechanic (or a driver with mechanical training)has declared it safe to move. A driver then has to be found to move the train, since the original driver is automatically taken off duty. Even then, the train won't go straight back into service, as it will need to go to a depot for further mechanical checks (and to clean the gore from it).

With mainline services, BTP target is to reopen a line no more than 100 minutes after the first report of a 'jumper'. Since that involves getting BTP officers to travel up to 40 miles to the scene, getting an undertaker on site, finding and collecting all the body parts (which can sometimes be spread over nearly a mile of track or thrown many yards into the undergrowth), getting a spare driver to the site (either with enough mechanical training to inspect the train or accompanied by a fitter), interviewing the original driver (and any other witnesses), etc, it's amazing that they can do it so quickly. (In practice, they normally do the job in little more than 1 hour but I've known them take 4 hours when they thought that there might be suspicious circumstances).

You ask about the locations for such incidents. The majority of them take place at stations (with people jumping from platforms), simply because that's the easiest place to get access to the tracks without having to climb any fences.

Chris

[filthiestfis]

Hey Buenchico!
Today it's happened again! The central line is down because of a person under a train!
Thank you so much for taking me through what happens when such incidents take place. I didn't think about all that happens after. It still doesn't tell me why after they resume the service, trains are running with severe delays. Once the train involved has been taken away and the body (or body parts) have been collected etc why are trains running so slowly?
It makes me wonder why there are people that insist on committing suicide like this. I mean, why? Is it to make a statement? If I was going to commit suicide then I would try to do it in a painless way such as overdosing. The thing is, there are so many ways of killing oneself, such as jumping off a bridge, that why do these people go for this macabre ending?
Anyone like to add their two cents?

[bednobs]

not sure why people do it like this but i could hazzard a guess at
1) quick
2) pretty definate!

[Panic Button]

but selfish.