JR East staff to be loaned to JR Hokkaido in bid to raise standards

[Guest ___]

JR East staff to be loaned to JR Hokkaido in bid to raise standards

Oct. 16, 2013 - 03:15PM JST (http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/jr-east-staff-to-be-loaned-to-jr-hokkaido-in-bid-to-raise-standards)

 

 

 

SAPPORO — The Hokkaido Railway Co (JR Hokkaido) has accepted an offer from East Japan Railway Co (JR East) to accept transfer staff in a bid to raise standards at the troubled rail operator.

At a meeting last week, JR East president Tetsuro Tomita declined a request from JR Hokkaido for financial support, but offered technical support and staff loans, Fuji TV reported Wednesday. His offer was made after JR Hokkaido hit headlines when it was discovered it had been running a train on the Okhotsk express service between Sapporo and Abashiri with its automatic emergency brake disabled.

 

That news came days after the beleaguered railway company announced that unrectified problems had been identified at 97 locations throughout its rail system. In August, the companies began an idea-sharing initiative related to safety management. However, the scheme was halted when the discovery of the unaddressed faults made headlines last month.

 

In the latest in a series of high-profile problems at the company, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport yesterday said that the company had failed to accurately record the locations of the defects.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Akihiro Ota, said section manager class employees would be dispatched from JR East to JR Hokkaido in an attempt to improve the latter’s safety record and to create regional parity between the operators.

 

 

 

[Densha]

I hadn't read about the disabled ATC yet! How is that even possible?

 

This all doesn't give off a good impression. I wonder how people are thinking of Shinkansen operated by JR Hokkaido now.

[bronzeonion]

'Automatic Emergency Brake'
 

Could this be the ATS equipment? Or the brake itself? As isolating the emergency brake would mean you would isolate the brakes completely, which clearly did not happen!

[westfalen]

The word automatic suggests the ATS to me. Our AWS and ATP can be cut out to get a train moving if it is not working but there are all sorts of conditions, like having the guard ride with the driver to call signals and the train has to be taken out of service. Not that unusual, unless they kept it running in that condition.

 

Just the time of year to get a transfer to sunny Hokkaido.

[ToniBabelony]

LOL! JR Hokkaidō is failing on so many fronts nowadays...

 

On the ATS system: from what I understood from the news reports on JR Hokkaidō, the driver of the train destroyed the ATS system after he had a mishap with his train.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xludk4lgga8

 

Relative to other recent incidents with JR Hokkaidō, it's one of the many minor cases...

[Densha]

Wait, how on earth is it possible to destroy the ATS system?

[ToniBabelony]

Wait, how on earth is it possible to destroy the ATS system?

 

[westfalen]

LOL! JR Hokkaidō is failing on so many fronts nowadays...

 

On the ATS system: from what I understood from the news reports on JR Hokkaidō, the driver of the train destroyed the ATS system after he had a mishap with his train.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xludk4lgga8

 

Relative to other recent incidents with JR Hokkaidō, it's one of the many minor cases...

From what I gather from other reports the driver preparing his locos for the Hokutosei couldn't get the ATS to work, the ATS was cut in on the trailing loco making it inoperable on the lead unit but he didn't realise until after he had called the fitters to check it out so he then cut it out before they arrived and didn't say anything to cover his embaressment, they couldn't find anything wrong and made the decision to swap the locos around to be safe delaying the departure of the Hokutosei from Sapporo.  I've done similar things myself when shed staff have checked things out and said "Well, here's your problem!" or couldn't find anything and I've said "Well it wasn't working before", but this guy later cracked and decided to take it out on the ATS with a hammer.  I don't think the train actually ran without working ATS but it still doesn't make JR Hokkaido look very good.

[katoftw]

The word automatic suggests the ATS to me. Our AWS and ATP can be cut out to get a train moving if it is not working but there are all sorts of conditions, like having the guard ride with the driver to call signals and the train has to be taken out of service. Not that unusual, unless they kept it running in that condition.

 

Just the time of year to get a transfer to sunny Hokkaido.

 

Sounds like a regular occurence for our old ICE trains.  Make me laugh every time that thing crawls at 30kph not to set off the AWS when it is faulty inwith a AWS zone.

Edited October 19, 2013 by katoftw

[katoftw]

The word automatic suggests the ATS to me. Our AWS and ATP can be cut out to get a train moving if it is not working but there are all sorts of conditions, like having the guard ride with the driver to call signals and the train has to be taken out of service. Not that unusual, unless they kept it running in that condition.

 

Just the time of year to get a transfer to sunny Hokkaido.

 

Sounds like a regular occurence for our old ICE trains.  Make me laugh every time that thing crawls at 30kph not to set off the AWS when it is faulty inwith a AWS zone.

Edited October 19, 2013 by katoftw

[Guest ___]

From my observation of ten straight days of spending 10-12 hours a day riding JR-H, I would not have guessed there was ATS on the system. Would also note that outside of Sapporo, it appeared there were a number of two three man crews running, even on single car trains, but assumed that a motorman was deadheading or working with a trainee.