Friday, 13 May 2016


Back in December when we had a knife weilding maniac causing mayhem at LES I found myself stuck up the west siding at WHC next to an engineering train and got talking with the driver. The drivers of engineering trians get to work all the lines apart from the W&C so unlike most TOps they can compare and contrast. According to him the Central Line is not the worst at recovering the service after an incident, that honour goes to the Piccadilly but the Central is definitely the second worst.

The Piccadilly could have some serious competition in the near future as from 21 May the British Museum siding west of HOL will be decomissioned and it seems at some point soon we will also lose the little used crossover at QUE. Our reversing points for the middle of the line will be at LES, the crosover west of BEG, the two sidings east of and crossover west of LIS, the siding west of MAA and WHC. At the moment the sidings at LIS are unavailable as they are being used for some sort of storage, no idea what that's for and no idea when we'll be getting them back.

I'm certainly glad I won't be working at Wood Lane the next time we have a service suspension
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14 comments:

  1. Anonymous16 May 2016 at 13:22

    That's just bonkers. Is the cost of maintaining the pointwork and signalling really so high? Also, didn't the QUE crossover get used recently during engineering works?

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    1. ASLEF shrugged17 May 2016 at 04:26

      Maybe the crossover was used by an engineering train but I don't recall QUE ever being used as a terminating point for engineering works, it only has two lifts which have a habit of breaking down so its not the best place to have loads of punters tipping off trains. I've only been over it once in my whole 12 years as a TOp.

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    2. Anonymous17 May 2016 at 10:22

      Here's a little something to refresh your memory: http://aslefshrugged.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none.html

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    3. ASLEF shrugged17 May 2016 at 15:28

      Alzheimer's!!!!!!!!

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  2. Anonymous17 May 2016 at 03:51

    Crazy I was on a train on Sat night that tipped out at Holborn and reversed there as it was running late!

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  3. Doubting Terrapin17 May 2016 at 21:21

    Brit Museum was used when the tunnel suffered excess drilling from above at Shepherds Bush, which at least gave eastern-end passengers a link to and from the eastern fringe of the West End and a connection to/from the Picc'. Seems very short-sighted to lose that turnback facility, but it may be linked to the future rebuild of Holborn, possibly a materials and kit storage site?

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    1. ASLEF shrugged18 May 2016 at 09:30

      Its a bloody long way from Holborn station to store stuff, not like Marble Arch or Liverpool Street. Also the Holborn upgrade is due to be complete by 2022, if its a six year job then that makes sense but if its less than that why decommission the siding now?

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    2. Anonymous24 May 2016 at 17:24

      It is a long way from Holborn, but isn't there some sort of staff/emergency only surface access left behind like at the other 'ghost' stations (e.g. Down Street, Bull and Bush)?

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  4. Anonymous17 May 2016 at 22:22

    the track geometry, especially on the w/b is such that the points are prone to failure and only very expensive work will resolve this. the turn back is not used regularly and the siding is not needed for storage, evacuation or anything else. it makes sense

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    1. ASLEF shrugged18 May 2016 at 09:36

      If you have a incident anywhere between Bond Street and Bank then the Central Line will be shut down between Marble Arch and Liverpool Street, if you have an incident at Marble Arch its shut down from White City to Liverpool Street. That might make sense to you but not to me.

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    2. Anonymous18 May 2016 at 10:10

      Bear in mind that once Crossrail comes along people will have a decent alternative, though...

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    3. ASLEF shrugged18 May 2016 at 10:50

      Bear in mind Crossrail doesn't open for another two years

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    4. Anonymous19 May 2016 at 07:38

      The RMT is now trying to stop the closure of Holborn sidings (see RMT London Calling website) The RMT said they only heard about the sidings being closed on the 9th May, from the London Underground traffic circular! With no consultation with the Unions, about this closure. Indeed apart from the TC I have seen no information about this. It is now very late in the day to stop this from happening and I can't see what the RMT can do now

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  5. Lime St lad23 May 2016 at 15:03

    Network rail forever getting rid of handy little crossovers that can get you out of so much trouble when it goes belly up. Need some driver input when making these decisions.
    On another note. See night tube is going from 19/8!

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