Lisbon Funicular crash. Awful
Discussion
shocking events in Lisbon yesterday evening.
Currently 16 dead.
My Portuguese wife suggested we go in it when we were there in April to get up to Barriro Alto. Took one look at it and said "No ****** way. Looks like a death trap" (also silly money to travel a short distance even if it is a very steep hill)
I seriously hope that death toll doesn't rise any further and there's a high likelihood they were all tourists other than the driver, confirmed deceased.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cpqnnllppnpt
Currently 16 dead.
My Portuguese wife suggested we go in it when we were there in April to get up to Barriro Alto. Took one look at it and said "No ****** way. Looks like a death trap" (also silly money to travel a short distance even if it is a very steep hill)
I seriously hope that death toll doesn't rise any further and there's a high likelihood they were all tourists other than the driver, confirmed deceased.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cpqnnllppnpt
Terrible news, was in Lisbon in March, walked up/down that route a number of times but never rode the funicular, which is unusual as MrsRace does like a ride in a funicular, mainly because it was always very busy and there was quite a bit of street art on the route we wanted to look at, we did ride the much newer funicular on the other side of town.
Dread to think what speed that thing got up to before crashing, it's a bloody steep hill.
Dread to think what speed that thing got up to before crashing, it's a bloody steep hill.
119 said:
Saw this on the news yesterday and wondered if they had any kind of routine checks, but i guess not.
Very sad and totally avoidable.
Carris, the company that runs Lisbon's trams and funiculars is going to open its own investigation, following tonight's terrible incident.Very sad and totally avoidable.
It also says its regular maintenance, which is carried out every four years, was last done 2022. Its interim maintenance was conducted last year, and regular monthly and weekly checks also took place.
As far as the company knows, everything was done according to the book, it says.
But one of the unions representing Carris employees has expressed concerns that not enough maintenance has been carried out. Carris denies this is the case.
Every day a journey said:
119 said:
Saw this on the news yesterday and wondered if they had any kind of routine checks, but i guess not.
Very sad and totally avoidable.
Carris, the company that runs Lisbon's trams and funiculars is going to open its own investigation, following tonight's terrible incident.Very sad and totally avoidable.
It also says its regular maintenance, which is carried out every four years, was last done 2022. Its interim maintenance was conducted last year, and regular monthly and weekly checks also took place.
As far as the company knows, everything was done according to the book, it says.
But one of the unions representing Carris employees has expressed concerns that not enough maintenance has been carried out. Carris denies this is the case.
I will admit to basing my accusations just on the pictures of the intact one last night, and thinking it didn't look all that healthy from the outside!
119 said:
Every day a journey said:
119 said:
Saw this on the news yesterday and wondered if they had any kind of routine checks, but i guess not.
Very sad and totally avoidable.
Carris, the company that runs Lisbon's trams and funiculars is going to open its own investigation, following tonight's terrible incident.Very sad and totally avoidable.
It also says its regular maintenance, which is carried out every four years, was last done 2022. Its interim maintenance was conducted last year, and regular monthly and weekly checks also took place.
As far as the company knows, everything was done according to the book, it says.
But one of the unions representing Carris employees has expressed concerns that not enough maintenance has been carried out. Carris denies this is the case.
I will admit to basing my accusations just on the pictures of the intact one last night, and thinking it didn't look all that healthy from the outside!
We were in Lisbon in April and road that funicular. I remember thinking we would be done if brakes/etc failed.
Was apprehensive at the time no way I will be going in anything like that in the future.
Saying that it had been operating for many many years without incident so maybe it’s just one of those things.
Awful for the families involved though. Tragic.
Was apprehensive at the time no way I will be going in anything like that in the future.
Saying that it had been operating for many many years without incident so maybe it’s just one of those things.
Awful for the families involved though. Tragic.
119 said:
Fair enough, cheers.
I will admit to basing my accusations just on the pictures of the intact one last night, and thinking it didn't look all that healthy from the outside!
Thing is is that these are very old vehicles built with little thought of crash protection should the worse happen. I'm sure that maintaining them is pretty intensive due to their age but like the cable cars in San Francisco, their age and history is part of the charm and there's only so much you can do to bring such antiquated vehicles up to a modern spec.I will admit to basing my accusations just on the pictures of the intact one last night, and thinking it didn't look all that healthy from the outside!
valiant said:
119 said:
Fair enough, cheers.
I will admit to basing my accusations just on the pictures of the intact one last night, and thinking it didn't look all that healthy from the outside!
Thing is is that these are very old vehicles built with little thought of crash protection should the worse happen. I'm sure that maintaining them is pretty intensive due to their age but like the cable cars in San Francisco, their age and history is part of the charm and there's only so much you can do to bring such antiquated vehicles up to a modern spec.I will admit to basing my accusations just on the pictures of the intact one last night, and thinking it didn't look all that healthy from the outside!
Mrs. Hants and I rode that funicular when we visited Lisbon - brilliant city by the way - and didn't give safety a second thought; you just assume it's safe I suppose. I'm trying not to think of those poor souls in the moments before impact <shudders> since it's a very, very steep slope.
Every day a journey said:
Carris, the company that runs Lisbon's trams and funiculars is going to open its own investigation, following tonight's terrible incident.
It also says its regular maintenance, which is carried out every four years, was last done 2022. Its interim maintenance was conducted last year, and regular monthly and weekly checks also took place.
We were in Lisbon last September and that line was closed the whole time we were there and it looked like they were doing some sort of refit on the carriages, presumably the interim maintenance referred to. Consequently I can affirm that it is a pretty steep hill to walk.It also says its regular maintenance, which is carried out every four years, was last done 2022. Its interim maintenance was conducted last year, and regular monthly and weekly checks also took place.
Mandat said:
I'm surprised that the trams only relied upon a single cable, without any additional safety redundancies.
I would have thought that perhaps there would be a backup cable that is also used, plus emergency brakes on the tram itself, to cover the eventuality of a cable failure.
I'm pretty sure there are brakes.I would have thought that perhaps there would be a backup cable that is also used, plus emergency brakes on the tram itself, to cover the eventuality of a cable failure.
It's reported this is a derailment, which has happened before.
If they'd completely relied on a single cable, both cars would have ended up at the bottom of the hill.
It's about a 1 in 6 hill, so I guess it's not just railway style wheel brakes which can't stop things on the flat with a leaf on the line...
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