MARC passengers take matters into own hands

What the conductors actually should have done was contact or informed the dispatcher of conditions prior to opening any windows. It wasn't an extreme circumstance where lost of life was at risk so the crews aren't allowed to open anything without permission. Yes if I was a passenger I probably would have got irritated and did the same thing but on the crew members side we aren't allowed to just open those things up, some of you guys don't realize how easy it is to get put out of service as a crew member working for the railroad. If there was any passenger that had a serious medical condition that would of required attention such as heatstroke etc etc than a crew member still should have been notified and he then should have made the call. I'm sure if one if the people on the train opened a window that they weren't suppose to and got either killed or hit by something on the train then all they would be looking for is a lawsuit. I still think this was handled poor by both the railroad and the crew members on the train, you can't blame the people.

neroden wrote:We know for a fact that the conductors should have been opening the windows, but didn't.

No, we don't.

We know that the passangers thought that it was better to have the windows open, but they don't have the experience or the training that the train crew has.

matthewsaggie wrote: 2. RearofSignal is right- is a crew of 2-3 going to stop a large number people who are intent on getting off a broken down train? Are they going to hold a gun on them? Especially in a place like Seabrook, where they can see out the window exactly where they are. (Not in the middle of no where as davinp refers to) I seem to recall a train in Mich or Ill. several years ago stranded with a timed-out crew stopped within sight of a station in the snow. Didn't some of them finally call the local 911?

I think that was the Pere Marquette near Holland, MI.

matthewsaggie wrote: 3. People are becoming less and less tolerant of what they consider B.S. situations (No matter what WE know the situation to be) and are more likly to take matters into their own hands then ever, even if it IS stupid and dangerous. You watch one time in the future when a plane spends 7 or 8 hours on the tarmac- someones going to go out an emergency exit and slide. I just think it will happen. (I spent 8 hours on the ground coming back from England one time- it crossed my mind)

While I generally agree, this is far from being a flawless point. For starters, peoples' definitions of what is and isn't B.S. are nonsensical (and that's a generous appraisal); oftentimes people will overreact even when the problem turns out to be minor. If something similar occurred but the engineer was able to solve the problem after maybe 5-10 minutes, giving people a license to climb out the windows would actually lead to more delay time due to having to get those windows back in for resuming the train's run.

Additionally, people might panic and think something is a crisis when it isn't. What if one person speculates a train is "dead" while it's just waiting for a signal to clear and the panic spreads? It seems to me like giving people a license to do as they please in these situations might lead to some additional problems being created.

HokieNav wrote:

neroden wrote:We know for a fact that the conductors should have been opening the windows, but didn't.

No, we don't.

We know that the passangers thought that it was better to have the windows open, but they don't have the experience or the training that the train crew has.

The train crew almost certainly has worse medical training than many of the passengers. Next strawman, please.

EDIT: note that encouraging people to *CLIMB OUT* the windows is entirely different from *OPENING* the windows.

Further edit: as noted, the train crew is discouraged by policy from actually treating heat exhaustion as serious. So I can't *really* blame the them -- but I can blame the management. This makes it all the more clear that the passengers have to fend for themselves.

Further further edit: I'm wondering if railroad policies simply haven't been changed since the days when most passenger cars had windows designed to be opened by passengers.