Tuesday 4 September 2012

The Paralympics continue with little noticeable effect, just the usual ATP/ATO failures, driving round in Coded with the door open when it’s sunny, people jumping onto trains while the doors are closing without understanding that the rucksack suitable for going up Everest makes them that bit bigger, waking up sleepers at the end of the line, etc, etc.

The only thing of note was that on my last trip back yesterday I was told at WHC to go Coded to SHB as they needed to retrieve something from the track. When I got to SHB a member of station staff was stood less than a car’s length into the platform with a hand lamp showing red, I drew up to it, secured the train and handed them my keys. With the train immobilised and providing protection the Station Super could retrieve whatever it was that was on the track after which I opened up again and brought the train fully into the platform.

Obviously when the train is in Auto the only way to stop it short coming into a platform or anywhere else is to activate the emergency brake by knocking out the TBC or hitting the big red button on the dashboard but this does make me wonder how they’ll deal with these sort of situations when the trains are driverless. I guess the Train Attendant will have to fight their way to the front and drive it manually, not something I’d want to attempt at 08:30 on a Tuesday morning. Like I care, I’ll be retired by then so it won’t be my problem.

Two more days and then I'm off to the Isle of Wight for four nights in a tent with New Order and Stevie Wonder.

11 comments:

  1. On the DLR (and presumably the Jubilee line, and soon the Northern), the control room can remotely take charge of a train and drive it remotely. I would assume something like this would be implemented; LUL suggested at it in their Deep Tube 2020 proposal

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    1. The Victoria and Jubilee Lines (and soon the Northern) run in ATO like the Central but Wood Lane can’t move the trains and I doubt if the Viccy or the Jubbly are any different. The first Line to NoPO under Deep Tube will be the Bakerloo but the system is still under development and it will still need TOps until the end of the decade.

      All DLR PSAs I’ve talked to have mentioned driving in manual but none have ever mentioned the control room taking over and doing anything other than normal running. If you know better please share the info.

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    2. I very much doubt it's ever happened, but Serco Docklands have confirmed that "The DLR Control Centre has the ability to take control of any train on the system during any point of its journey between stations." (http://londonist.com/2007/11/unmanned_train.php)

      The DLR uses the same Seltrac S40 signalling system as the Jubilee line, and soon the Northern, so one would assume that Neasden can do so as well, as will Highgate be able to, but I can find nothing confirming or denying this

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    3. Signalling isn't driving!

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    4. I would imagine that the 95s and 96s would have needed some serious modification with whatever piece of kit the trains on the DLR have that enable ATC and had this been introduced anywhere on the Tube I suspect it would have been widely publicised as a certain Mr Crow would certainly have spoken out against it.

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  2. I just hope they have a dirty great fuseable link that the person providing protection can physically remove so that there is no way that the protecting train can suddenly come live, and it would have to be done at both ends of the protected section too, as these new fangled units are supposed to be bi-directional AND have a motive battery back-up.

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  3. Yes, battery movement is going to be so useful when a signal is stuck at danger and the computer says “NO”.

    As the cost of installing walkways down the tunnels would be astronomical there will never unmanned trains, you’ll have to have a staff member on board somewhere in order to secure the train if they ever need to get technicians down the tunnels. It’s where the whole “no staff, no strikes” idea falls apart but then I’m sure it all looks so simple around a conference table high up in the ivory towers of 55 Broadway.

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  4. As a passenger I'd like to know what was so important that it was worth screwing the service up for so something could be removed from the track.

    If it was that big, why not stop the service and discharge current. If it was some dipsy commuters show or kids toy, then tough, let them wait till the end of service and get it through lost property.

    Wonder if that's why they shot-tripped 2 epping trains in a row yesterday

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    1. No one goes on the track without the Line Controllers say so and no one goes on it without protection. This was around 10pm , I got my keys back in seconds so it didn’t holdup the service and it certainly wasn’t the reason some trains got short turned.

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  5. That's a very large tent then?!

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  6. Big enough though I've been told Bernard Sumner snores like a pig being dragged over grating......

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