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is nowhere safe?


mint
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What about the brave French film star who was reported to have bravely helped neutralise the terrorist, bet he got an even bigger medal.

 

His brave act? Hammering on the locked door shouting "let me in you *******s" then cutting his hand using the break glass guard alert.

 

Trouble is for at least 40 years call points have either had plastic resettable "glasses" or the glass has been plastic covered so as you cannot cut yourself, I wonder how he really cut his hand?

 

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For those who have reacted to the reports that SNCF staff locked themselves away from the incident - and everyone else, I think there may well be a very good and logical reason for this.

I am sure that SNCF will have considered what actions to take in the event of a terrorist attack on a train. I could well image that the first step is to isolate the driving and motor compartments, to avoid the possibility of the train being taken over - much as airplanes have the cockpit doors locked. Once isolated, the doors stay shut - as in they are not opened under any circumstances - not even children at risk - until police or armed forces advise otherwise. After all, in constructing the scenarios a terrorist taking children and demanding to be let into the driving compartment will have been considered.

While the trains do have safety systems to stop a train that has gone through a red signal or is being driven too quickly, these systems can be over-ridden. Can you imagine the carnage of a TGV at say only 100kph (let alone the 300kph design speed) hitting the buffers at Gare du Nord? I am sure SNCF will have considered exactly that.
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Yeah right!!!!!

Funny that it was the three Americans and a Brit that got the terrorist and the American helped other passengers before helping himself after being seriously injured. Sorry where were the French?

We know the French train staff were no help after saving themselves and not allowing other passengers that were begging to get in but what about the other majority French passengers? :/
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[quote user="andyh4"]For those who have reacted to the reports that SNCF staff locked themselves away from the incident - and everyone else, I think there may well be a very good and logical reason for this.

I am sure that SNCF will have considered what actions to take in the event of a terrorist attack on a train. I could well image that the first step is to isolate the driving and motor compartments, to avoid the possibility of the train being taken over - much as airplanes have the cockpit doors locked. Once isolated, the doors stay shut - as in they are not opened under any circumstances - not even children at risk - until police or armed forces advise otherwise. After all, in constructing the scenarios a terrorist taking children and demanding to be let into the driving compartment will have been considered.

While the trains do have safety systems to stop a train that has gone through a red signal or is being driven too quickly, these systems can be over-ridden. Can you imagine the carnage of a TGV at say only 100kph (let alone the 300kph design speed) hitting the buffers at Gare du Nord? I am sure SNCF will have considered exactly that.[/quote]

andy, yes, I too have read that SNCF have made no apology for their staff taking this action because apparently this is what they have been trained to do in order to secure the safety of the train.

But, I don't know or understand enough to comment either way.

And, WJT, I have read that there WERE 2 French men first on the scene.  There were allegedly, a French banker who took first hit and then an Armenian-French academic who confronted the gun man and who was shot in the neck.

That's not to say that I don't credit the Americans with immobilising the gunman because, arguably, they were possibly the only men on the train who could have known what to do to the gun men as they were military personnel and therefore fully trained.  Moreover, one of them had recently left Afghanistan and so would have been combat fit.

Indeed, I have more problems with the Brit getting the same honour as the others.  After all, I think all he really did was help the yanks tie the man up?!

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Mint, I think you're right about the Englishman coming in after the Americans and that he helped to keep the armed man down and tied him up with his own tie and other assorted materials.

He actually sounded very unassuming and stated that he really only helped - quite refreshing, really. Also he said how scared he was, but that if he was going to die he'd rather die trying to do something than die just hiding and doing nothing. A rather portly 60-something joining in seemed to me to be a pretty good role model.

Those 3 American chaps did a grand job, as did the other 2 who attempted to stop the man and who were injured. Everyone on the train was extremely lucky they were all around to have a go. It would seem correct for SNCF employees to be

I think you're right about the Englishman coming in after the Americans and that he helped to keep the armed man down and tied him up with his own tie and other assorted materials.

He actually sounded very unassuming and stated that he really only helped - quite refreshing, really. Also that he said how scared he was, but that if he was going to die he'd rather die trying to do something than die just hiding and doing nothing.

A rather portly 60-something joining in seemed to me to be a pretty good role model. Who knows what any of us would do when faced with such a situation.

Those 3 American chaps did a grand job, as did the other 2 who attempted to stop the man and who were injured. Everyone on the train was extremely lucky they were all around to have a go. It would seem likely that SNCF staff would be trained to hide but why has no spokesman said so? I've not seen or heard that in the media.

I was listening to somebody on R4 saying that in a group situation such as that, it needs somebody to actually say 'Get him' or whatever; interesting. Made me think of the 'Let's roll', said by a young American chap on that plane on September 11th, when a group tried rushing the hijackers.
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Well I would say that it is because the gendarmes, in my experience, are rather sloth like in doing anything.

Those in my old region appeared to be there to controle papiers and stop, usually lady motorists, even when male drivers would pass say, on their mobile phones or no seat belt!

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When the French equivalent of the Brinks Mat robbery took place at a secure cash handling depot in the City of Amiens during a week-end de pont it took 5 days before the hold up alarms were responded to and that was the Police Nationale and not the Gendarmerie, at the gare de Betteraves when you step off the TGV you wont even find a taxi, if you find a number for one and call it after 7pm or at a week-end they will refuse to come out, most times I drive back that way I pick up hitch-hikers often elderly and/or vulnerable and always in a state of shock.

The best quote came from a G man when asked why he would not do his duty, 'Monsieur, il y a la loi, et il y a l'application de la loi" [:'(]

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In fact any terrorist response team would probably not even be able to find the TGV stop at Haute Picardie, unless things have changed you try even finding it as a destination on the SNCF or TGV site, if you do manage it then you are a better man than me, talk about the elephant (white) in the room!
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SNCF's policy of out of town TGV stations has not been a great success. The logic that this type of build means that you do not disrupt the standard network by upgrading city station locations cannot be denied, but SNCF seem to have taken the out of town concept to the extreme and built in the wilderness.

The only station that has been anything of a success has been Valence TGV - which is only a few kms out of town

. Here a strip of ribbon development and commercial zones has created connectivity with the city.

Elsewhere the stations might almost be on another planet. Avignon TGV is in parched fields, although they have now built a normal rail connection to Avignon Ville. Aix-en-Provence TGV station feels like it is in a desert. Even the road connecting it degenerates from a dual carriageway (from Marseille which you reach by TGV anyway) so single carriageway into Aix. As for Lyon St.Exupery - well the airport publicity says it all. From the airport you can walk to the TGV station and catch a fast train to Paris, Marseille and Milan. Er, excuse me, I am at an airport, I can fly to all of those places!! Try getting from there to Lyon centre (tram), Villefranche (only a train service from Lyon centre), or Tain L'Hermitage (ditto).

Sorry all OT but still loosely related.

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 Don't get me started about St Exupery Airport......... (Satolas was a perfectly decent name!). It is rubbish, unhelpful staff, few links to anywhere. There is a station, but next to no trains to Chambery, Aix les Bain etc. And yet I have little choice, it is there or Geneva, and when there are flights Chambery.

And the gendarmes, well, Chancer, that one said it all. I could write pages about what they did not/do not do.....even though they should.

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The gare des betteraves was bult where it was because both St Quentin and Amiens were fighting for who should get the TGV stop on the Lille/Paris line, either would have been excellent, instead the compromise was to build it in the exact mid spot of the shortest straight line between the two citys, in nul part.

 

There is one bus that only runs between the station to St Quentin and Amiens but only when a train stops and often it doesnt even run, otherwise there is absolutely nothing, even the ticket office closes for over 2 hours for lunch, I got sent away at 11.45 and told to come back at 2.30.

 

They built a shining new industrial estate beside it which 20 years on is still practically empty:

 

http://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/transports/vingt-ans-apres-la-gare-tgv-haute-picardie-reste-plantee-au-milieu-des-betteraves_775447.html

 

Meanwhile they move on to other multi-million white éléphants like the international airport on my doorstep that after 7 years has still to recieve one single passenger, didnt stop them from building a second terminal building though and yet another new industrial estate, this one a science park.

 

All they do well in my region is write cheques to spend other peoples money.

 

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And yet for the death of an elderly lady chez moi a few years back, after the paramedics etc had left, TWO beefy gendarmes had to come along to my house and just hang about till an undertaker arrived.

Sorry, nothing to do with the OT - just a bewildered rant...

Angela
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[quote user="idun"] Gare de Betteraves.......... easily seen from the A1 and when one looks around, there is literally nothing else but fields!

A very strange and lonely place.

[/quote]

Silly idun, where, pray, would you find betteraves other than in fields?[:P]

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[quote user="mint"][quote user="idun"] Gare de Betteraves.......... easily seen from the A1 and when one looks around, there is literally nothing else but fields!

A very strange and lonely place.

[/quote]

Silly idun, where, pray, would you find betteraves other than in fields?[:P]

[/quote]

All I can say is that I know that the station is known as the Gare des Betteraves, BUT, to my knowledge, I have never seen a beetroot growing[:D]

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Well that's something new I've learnt today

I suppose before long they'll be piles of them in Pas de Calais waiting to be processed at Hesdin

The first job of a friend of mine was a sugar beet inspector in Lincoln (looking for sugar beet worm I think?) said it was the worst/most boring job he ever had

Sorry, that was completely off topic.

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[quote user="Loiseau"]I have always presumed it was sugar beet that is being grown. That is what you see in mountainous piles by the roadside off the beeten (ouch) track.

Angela[/quote]

hmm...........naughty but nice![:P]

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