On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 03:12:56 -0800 (PST)
Tubeprune wrote:
It isn't quite as simple as that. If the normal "signalling" system
fails, the system defaults to the next level of safety - manual
driving at 10mph. This is all very well but if every train has to
pass through an area where the signalling isn't responding normally at
this speed, the numbers of passengers waiting at stations quickly gets
to dangerous, even life-threatening levels. The only safe way of
dealing with this is to close parts of the line.

But if its only a small section of signalling thats failed it shouldn't
make too much of a difference going at 10mph. And station staff can always
close entrances to limit the number of people on a platform as is done all the
time at victoria anyway. And its not as if the passengers all just go home,
the overcrowding will just move elsewhere - buses, mainline stations etc.
I just get the feeling that LU always takes the easy option.

I'm afraid the existing lines in London can't cope with the number of
people who want to travel. It will get a little easier when Crossrail
opens but we desperately need a new South-west to North-east line
(Chelsea-Hackney). It should have been built 10 years ago but at
=A3300million a mile, the government didn't and still doesn't have the
money for it.
TP

I'm not sure chelsea really needs a whole new line given the close proximity
of a lot of tube stations down there already, but the hackney area could
do with one. A branch off the current victoria line from KX would probably
cover it.

B2003