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Please could someone tell me what 'Signal Failure' Means on London Underground

Please could someone tell me what 'Signal Failure' Means on London Underground

Old Sep 9th 2003, 5:40 pm
  #1  
Alan Van Wyk
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Default Please could someone tell me what 'Signal Failure' Means on London Underground

I have been delayed by 'Signal Failure' once too many times.

Could someone please explain to me what 'Signal Failure' is, so that I
can understand what it is that costs me probably and hour and a half
of my life each and every week!

Does this exist, or is it simply London Transport's way of saying,
'Yes we know we charge more than anyone else on the planet for
transport, but we are still going to provide an absolutely rubbish
service, because we don't care.

If anyone out there has any idea, please let me know!

Thanks
 
Old Sep 9th 2003, 6:31 pm
  #2  
Owain
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Default Re: Please could someone tell me what 'Signal Failure' Means on London Underground

"Alan van Wyk" wrote
    | I have been delayed by 'Signal Failure' once too many times.
    | Could someone please explain to me what 'Signal Failure' is, so that I
    | can understand what it is that costs me probably and hour and a half
    | of my life each and every week!

The tube uses signals, like any other railway system. A train can't get too
close to the train in front, so the line is split into sections and the
train has to wait until the section (or platform, at a station) is clear
before being allowed to proceed.

... That is, the signal for some reason (namely a signal failure) was locked
at danger and would never show a green aspect until it had been repaired. By
applying the rule you carry out a complicated safety procedure to drive the
train past the signal while it is red. When any signal on London Underground
is red, an armature on the track (the trainstop) will strike a lever (the
tripcock) beneath the train and cause the emergency brakes to be
automatically applied. Hence the very sharp application of the brakes.
Trains on London Underground are fitted with a system called SCAT (Speed
Control After Tripping) which means that the driver will not be able to
operate the train above 5mph for about 3 minutes (it varies from stock to
stock). ... Chris Morrison wrote in message
<[email protected]> on news:uk.transport.london

Because on the tube (almost) all trains stop at (almost) all stations, there
is very little opportunity for trains to 'overtake' a 'struck' train by
re-routing, which is what could happen in some mainline rail situations. So
if a train gets stuck, all the other trains on the line start stacking up
behind it.

    | Does this exist, or is it simply London Transport's way of saying,
    | 'Yes we know we charge more than anyone else on the planet for
    | transport, but we are still going to provide an absolutely rubbish
    | service, because we don't care.

You may very well think so, but I couldn't possibly comment!

Owain
 
Old Sep 9th 2003, 10:52 pm
  #3  
David Bennetts
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Default Re: Please could someone tell me what 'Signal Failure' Means on London Underground

Signal failure is all too common on London Underground. Signalling systems
are designed so that they revert to danger in the event of malfunction so
that the train stops, inconvenient yes but better than the alternative crash
or derailment.

London Underground overall has some aging infrastructure which although not
unsafe has reliability problems. Much of this is due to under-investment,
and lack of funding from Government.

It is far from alone in this regard, the Sydney rail network suffers similar
problems.

Regards

David Bennetts
Australia




Please remove -nospam to reply
"Alan van Wyk" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > I have been delayed by 'Signal Failure' once too many times.
    > Could someone please explain to me what 'Signal Failure' is, so that I
    > can understand what it is that costs me probably and hour and a half
    > of my life each and every week!
    > Does this exist, or is it simply London Transport's way of saying,
    > 'Yes we know we charge more than anyone else on the planet for
    > transport, but we are still going to provide an absolutely rubbish
    > service, because we don't care.
    > If anyone out there has any idea, please let me know!
    > Thanks
 
Old Sep 10th 2003, 8:12 am
  #4  
Alan Van Wyk
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Default Re: Please could someone tell me what 'Signal Failure' Means on London Underground

Surely if the train is now limited to a set speed and trains are
stacking behind it, it should be possible for LU to calculate the
estimated time for thw train to start running normally and appear
again. As a train has been stopped, it means of course that the train
ahead of it moves on and thus the slowed train should have no problems
once the 5 minute time has passed.

Yesterday I was on the platform to watch a circle line train leave,
without any problems. 5 Minutes later the usual 'signal failure'
message was played on the speakers and they then closed the station,
kicking everyone out. No idea of time or anything. This meant that to
get home I had to catch a bus, 2 tubes and a mainline train, as
opposed to just the tube! This meant that the trip home took over an
hour longer than usual.

I would have preferred to just sit at the station and wait for the
train!!

On London Undergrounds website they brag about transporting 3 million
people a day. If each of those people spends £3, thats £90 million
pounds a day(and rising due to ridiculous fare hikes) That makes
£3285000000 per year.

Surely some of that should go into sorting out this recurring problem!
Add to the top of that Ken Livingstones Congestion Charging Scam ,
sorry scheme, which now forces more people onto the Underground and
ridiculous tube strikes and so on!!

If the charges for the Underground were reasonable, then we'd have no
room to complain, but if we're paying the highest rates of any city in
the world, surely we should expect a better service.

If other cities around the world can sort it out . . . and at cheaper
rates, then why can't London do it!

I really hope London never wins anything like a bid to host the
Olympics, because it will never be able to cope, as it can hardly cope
with the traffic moving in it at the moment!
 
Old Sep 10th 2003, 9:35 am
  #5  
Tim Challenger
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Posts: n/a
Default Re: Please could someone tell me what 'Signal Failure' Means on London Underground

On 10 Sep 2003 01:12:41 -0700, Alan van Wyk wrote:

    > 3 million people a day. If each of those people spends £3, thats £90 million

9 million a day.
--
Tim.

If the human brain were simple enough that we could understand it, we would
be so simple that we couldn't.
 
Old Sep 10th 2003, 4:54 pm
  #6  
S?Nke Tesch
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Default Re: Please could someone tell me what 'Signal Failure' Means on London

Tim Challenger wrote:
    : On 10 Sep 2003 01:12:41 -0700, Alan van Wyk wrote:
    :
    : >3 million people a day. If each of those people spends £3, thats £90 million
    :
    : 9 million a day.

Nitpicker.

SCNR
soenk.e
 

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