Archived report · 2 min read · Set in Long Acre ·
The Funicular Car That Stopped at a Stop Not on the Plan
An incident report on the Long Acre incline records one car halting at an unlisted landing, where the doors open on a platform that the drawings show as a solid rock face.
- filed: Filed after the winter maintenance review
- reference: LAI/INC/07
Incident: unscheduled stop, car 2, Long Acre funicular, down working, 17 November, 21:40.
1. Car 2 was descending the incline with four passengers and a conductor when the brake released early, as designed, at the midway point. The car decelerated normally and stopped at a landing that does not appear on the line plan.
2. The landing has no number, no sign and no lamp. It is cut into the rock on the uphill side of the track, a flat concrete platform roughly the length of one car, with a single rusted handrail. The doors opened automatically when the car stopped. The conductor says the doors were not operated by him.
3. Passengers reported that the platform was dry and cold. One passenger stepped onto it and reported a smell of wet stone and beeswax. Another reported that the handrail was warm.
4. The conductor says that at the landing there was a small waiting room with a bench and a timetable board. The board displayed the times of cars that had already run that evening. No car has been timed at that landing in the history of the line.
5. Maintenance inspection of the platform found no sign of recent construction. The concrete is weathered to the same degree as the rock face. The handrail is painted with the original green used on the line in 1912.
6. Observation not explained by the survey: the timetable board lists a final car at 22:15, direction up, with four passengers booked. At 22:15 the car was in the depot. The four names on the booking sheet are the four passengers who had boarded car 2 at the lower station, in the order they had boarded.
7. The landing has not been found on any subsequent inspection. The bench is not present. The handrail has been repainted.
8. Recommendation: no further action. The operator has been advised to keep the lower doors on manual during the winter review.