Transport for Greater Manchester have confirmed £4.6 million worth of funding to install new sensors on Manchester Metrolink trams to try and help stop tram surfers. Tram surfing – where individuals grab hold of the back of trams, or on the couplers between two coupled trams – has long been a scourge of tramways and after two people died in 2021, TfGM were told they needed to take action to prevent any further incidents.
New technology, known as LIDAR, uses lasers to paint a 3D map of the gap between two trams, and this should be able to identify to the driver if someone is located on the coupling. Its said similar technology is used by cars for cruise control and emergency braking.
Danny Vaughan, TfGM’s Chief Network Officer, said: “There’s huge number of priorities from a safety perspective. This is one of many. The reason we focus on trams is it’s a risk to the operation of Metrolink. We had two fatalities at the end of 2021 where people fell into the gap between the coupling. They were not necessarily surfing.
“The Office for Road and Rail (ORR) expressed some concern about our operation of the coupling. If we cannot run doubles then we limit capacity. The ORR said to operate doubles we have to mitigate the risk. We did everything they recommended, and the remaining thing was to investigate if we could employ new technology.”
The decision has not been met with unanimous approval from local Councillors though who feel the cash could be better spent elsewhere. This included Cllr Alan Quinn from Bury Council who told the Bee Network Committee: “I am saying to say if you jump into two trams you know what you are doing. They are making a calculated choice. That money could be spent elsewhere. The people know exactly what they are doing.”
This is very interesting and I wonder if the powers that be are aware of the history of Blackpool’s Twin Cars which, when new (1960-1962), boasted four horizontal steel cables (chains) connecting the two halves of the tram units, thus preventing any such tragedies as the two mentioned. Any attempts for people to squeeze between the units were rendered impossible. Safety, it would seem had prioity even in those days and there weren’t any fatalities in what seems to me an accident wating to happen.
Actually this arrangement applied to both sides of the trams, so it would have ruled out any attempts to enter the space.
In this case a number more chains would need to be fitted to prevent falling/climbing from the full height platforms. Aswell as complicating the mostly automatic coupling process that takes place numerous times a night it would also create a ladder to climb up the vehicles, something the ORR will be cautious of following a drunk man’s fatality on a IET a few years back.
Very little is new – a similar system, using ‘gates’ was used on LCC E/1s with trailers back in 1913.
The fitting of those ‘cables’ no doubt was a very simple and effective idea on the Blackpool Twin Cars which were effectively permanently coupled. It would be far less practical on Metrolink where M5000s are frequently coupled and uncoupled.
Then look at the SF version, quick release like queue barrier tape!
I did look after your suggestion and yes on the face of it those may well be a relatively low cost effective deterrent I agree. However as poster ‘A’ suggests they may fall victim to ORR’s dislike of anything with the potential to act like a ladder giving access to the roof. Approval and risk assessment protocols may differ considerably between the UK and USA.
For goodness sake just look around the world where various different ‘gates’ and ‘barrier tapes’ are in use to stop you getting between.