Excessively loud S-Bahn horn sounding

I've had the requisite number of cups of coffay, smokes are again history, and I'm in a really foul mood.

What is up with these S-Bahn drivers sounding their 130dB horns when entering ENCLOSED STATIONS?! As they approach every station in the Nadelohr, every S-Bahn driver is hitting his horn.

To make matters worse, I usually have to get off the train at the very front or back, so that's also where I get on. This leaves me at the edge of the platform and treats my already damaged hearing to the full brunt of the noise.

Do they think people can't hear them entering the station?
Do they think people can't feel the wind from them entering the station?
Do they think the numbnuts passengers are all playing on the tracks?
Is DB running some sort of "Piss Everyone Off" contest?

I'd understand it if there were construction workers near the entry; hitting the horn is a matter of safety when you've got guys wearing the heavy-duty Mickey Mouse earphones as they're banging rails.

But there isn't any construction!

So why have they started doing this? More importantly, how do we get them to stop?

woof.

I've wondered this a couple times too, although it didn't piss me off to quite such an extent. I have a couple of theories:

They are tooting their horn to the other S-bahn driver going the other way, who is their regular beer-after-work buddy.

They are tooting their horn because some eejit is standing too close to the edge for their liking, ignoring the rest of the warning signals that a train is coming while they look down at the mice on the tracks, wondering if they (the mice, that is) are going to get run over.

They are tooting their horn because they have run over and killed/maimed someone in the past and now they are paranoid about it happening again, so better safe than sorry.

The last one gives me a little more sympathy with the horn blowers.

this is something new, i think they have recieved new orders because lots of hermans are so scared of not getting a seat for their journey of five minutes that they tend to stand too near the edge.

Nope. Usually no oncoming train on other track.

Nope. They often can't even see more than the edge of the platform -- if that -- when they hit it.


Nope. Very few suicide-by-train incidents here, and fewer accidental.

This shit only started up a few weeks ago, and only with a few of the drivers. Now every single one of the fuckers is doing it, always in Hbf, Karlsplatz and Marienplatz, sometimes also in Rosenheimer and Isartor.

woof.

toytowngermany.com has its very own little section about U/S Bahn suicides

Theres lots of work going on in the tunnels still right now getting ready for the new extra services. The extra hooting started just as they paniced and realised not everything would be ready.

Its standard procedure to have tooting when people are working on or near the tracks

P

Yes it is, and I mentioned that (and agree with the policy). But there aren't any workers at Karlspl or Hbf. And there certainly aren't workers at every station's entrance during morning and evening rush.

Next theory?

woof.

Ahh, I guess you have personally inspected each tunnel and checked that there are no workers.

Sorry, you can put up with a horn hooting to spare a life - if it bothers you so much write to the sbahn and ask them! (or buy some ear plugs...)

P

Maybe they're just happy...or horny.

I stand at the end of the platform every morning and evening. I can see down the tunnel from the edge of the platform and usually through the front window of the train as well. Also, if there were workers, they'd also hit their horns upon or shortly after leaving the station.

It's not saving any lives.

woof.

mmm, just a thought. if your standing that near to the edge that you can see down the tunnel maybe they're tooting their horn for you to get out the bloody way? i agree with poots annoying yes, but not half as annoying as some drunken glühwein-spezialist (me on friday ) who is wobbling to near to the edge and gets slapped by 200 tonnes of alstrom/bombediers best public transport system.

They can't see me. I can't see them. I'm not at the edge. They often hit the horn before they can see the station entrance.


I've always been rather a fan of evolution...

Seriously, the horn blasting tends to make people jump. Literally. They're more likely to be injured that way.

woof.

errr... relax its a horn, makes a loud sound and stops people getting hurt. me thinks your being a wee bit unfair on johnny s-bahn driver.

*sings*

if i had a horn.
i'd toot in the station. i'd toot in the tunnel all down the line.
I'd toot it in the rush hour. i'd toot it in my lunchtime.
i'd toot it on the S6 - S7 - S8 - S9. all over this town.
oooww ooww owww owwww!

Hey folks, Gideon's been at the Feuerzangenbowle again.

I use the S-Bahn into and out of Hbf most days and can't say I've noticed them using a horn. Ever. Am I going deaf or do such things just not worry me?

I've heard them using the horn - it is because people don't stay inside the marked lines and could get sucked under the train by the jetstream.
And people falling under the train causes delays to all passengers and to S-Bahn drivers wanting to do something more interesting (like go home on time or smoking or summat).

<puts on anorak>

Well they are (also on the U-Bahn) getting more jumpy about people being "close to the edge" (cue early 80s UK road safety "rap" tune) partly cos in December there's a lot of shoppers and a lot of people on the Feuerzangebowle, right kids!

However the reason I'd say is that on the S-bahn they have re-introduced at the city stations the "Zentraler Abfertigung" system. On the new trains it was theoreticly possible for people to block the doors indefinitely for latecomers or if someone were dozy enough not to stand back the doors would keep re-opening. To simply get the trains through what from 13th December will be EUROPES BUSIEST RAILWAY LINE the dwell times of the trains at central S-Bahn stations are fixed at 30 seconds. To keep to that the doors will be shut centrally by the station staff - watch your fingers!

The horn warns staff that a train is approaching and so needs to be processed and also passengers, get off the seats, move along the platform etc cos you are only gonna have 30 seconds to board the train.

Now as many an experienced TT commuter has said on here, if you have to change trains you tend to know where you have to stand to change quickly and easily. MVG and S-Bahn hate this as it means that there tends to be bunching. Also to blame is the fact that at stations with central entrances to platforms passengers tend not to move along the platform towards the ends. This increases dwell times. To combat this the S-Bahn is gonna have platform staff pushing you along the platforms. Well, suggesting in a polite non-agressive tone that you might be so kind as to move along the platform...

now that i cant wait to hear...

@grtho



Right kids!

Good questions and Answers...

Now if this were just a"Tunnel" thing Why do they also do it as far west
as hackerbrucke?

For the "workers on the track", there are required to be 2 "lookouts"
1 watching each direction, AND a temp. light system. In city tunnels
they are required to turn the lights on when workers are in the tunnel.
(Yes there are lights in the tunnels, but they are normally kept off)

If any of your want the real answer as to why they are beeping, ASK THE DRIVERS..
I'm sure they'll tell you why..

I'm going with this one:


You know, in the spirit of Chirtmas an' all.

kt

Well, they have stopped tooting now ... any idea why?

Enough people complained and pointed out that they were doing it unnecessarily in tunnels where you can see, hear and feel the coming trains, but they weren't doing it outside where you have no clue a train's coming.

I made it a point to complain to every red-vested S-Bahn worker I saw. Sometimes I had to wait for them to finish spewing the "it's for your safety" schpiel they didn't believe themselves to some other schlub who was complaining before I got there.

woof.

They weren't tooting for your safety but to inform the platform staff that the train was approaching for central despatching - which only happens at city centre stations.

It was a temprary measure until a new system could be set up which I assume has now happened.

Federal regulations insist (for your dafety) that if a train sounds it horn for whatever reason it MUST be that loud.

One of the profs at my uni in the states actually put a similar airhorn (definitly as loud) on his bike (no, not motorcylce, his mountainbike), so that when riding in traffic in downtown Atlanta, he could blow his horn while behind cars to scare the piss out of the drivers. He also gave permission to all the students in his classes to blow the horn whenever they wanted. This was because he parked his bike right outside of the office of the lady who rejected his request for a raise

If they'd do that outside they'd have the locals at their doormat within a flash.

Is that a fact or an opinion?

If it's a fact, do you have a reference?

Thanks.

I was told by the red-vests originally that it was done for safety, not for notification. The old tracking system comptuers were still in the kiosks and running.

I was likewise told by a red-vest when I asked that it was stopped due to complaints. I vaguely recall something about that as well in the TZ but I couldn't even tell you whether I saw it (if I did) in Feb or March.

Who knows? Maybe the red-vests were all taking the piss.

woof.

Red vests were lying to you BadDoggie.

I can't remember if it was in the TZ or some special anorak news source but DB said it was to INFORM staff about the approach of a train they needed to despatch.

The only "safety" aspect is that railway regulations say that if a horn is used for any reason it has to be of a certain volume for safety - horns usually are used as a warning, just not in this case.