London Banter - View Single Post - Proposal - every Tube ticket office to close by 2015

Graeme Wall

On 07/12/2013 10:46, d wrote:
On Fri, 06 Dec 2013 16:50:28 +0000
Graeme Wall wrote:
On 06/12/2013 16:16, d wrote:
They do that anyway even if there hasn't been a train througn for 10 minutes.
I don't think I've ever been on another metro system that has to "regulate"
itself. The trains just run. If you have trains every 2 minutes why do you
need a timetable anyway? They just run up and down the line and stop at the
end of the day. The drivers obviously need a roster but what difference does
it make if they pick up train A, B, C or D? They're all the bloody same.

The diagrams are different, not all trains go right to the end of the
line, then you have all the different branches. Many metro systems are
just a collection of there and back lines which will be much simpler to
operate.

Well there is that. But the jubilee, bakerloo, victoria & W&C are just there
and back lines

They aren't completely. Not all trains go all the way every trip and the
H&C has to dovetail into the Met, District and Circle lines.

so why do they need a timetable? Even on more complicated
lines you could have some sort of train recognition system whereby the driver
types in his route at the start of his trip and the signalling sets the
route according to the trains id when it gets to certain junctions. No need
for a timetable.

Reinventing the wheel. I suggest you read up on TfL's regulatory system.

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read, substitute trains for rail.
Railway Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail