On Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:31:27 +0000
Mike Bristow wrote:
The fault probably presented itself initially as a signal that wouldn't
wouldn't clear, as a broken rail means a track circuit failure.

Fair enough.

The distiction between 'signal failure', 'points failure', and
'broken rail' is usually pretty acadmeic to customers anyway: what
they care about is 'when is the next train?'. Getting that correct
is much more important that the root cause analysis - and as someone
stuck on the Central that day, I don't think they got that part
wrong at all.

I'm not sure it is academic. Signal failures happen all the time and I'm sure
most people are sick of hearing that excuse and just wonder why they don't
replace the signals that keep going wrong (hello Arnos Grove) with new kit.
A broken rail however I think everyone would understand is a major failure
and sometimes will just happen. Though inspecting the track a bit better
might help.

B2003