Sticking it up – shocking!

Sticking it up is a dangerous thing to do in most places, but in a station it can pose specific problems. Why?

Basically, it’s all about electrification. When the wires are put up – as they have been in the past, as they’re being now, and will be in the future – good sense says we put live conductors as far from where people move about, buy coffees and wait for trains as possible.

Of course, this is the railway, and sometimes historical factors (usually Victorian ones, involving different companies building to different standards) mean that the wire is lower than ideal.

In these cases, a risk assessment is required, as you’d expect. And into that mix must go all the things that a passenger might stick up.

There have always been umbrellas – this is Britain, after all – and there have always been fishing rods. More recently, however, we’ve seen the rise of the helium balloon and the ‘selfie stick’.

The former have been banned at Ashford International, but as the latter have yet to be considered, is it time for a co-ordinated approach, for improved signage, verbal announcements, and even a restriction on the sale of balloons and selfie sticks at stations?

• Have you considered the risks in your safety management systems presented by ‘selfie sticks’, helium balloons and others items now brandished by the public?