On Sat, 8 Apr 2017 14:46:03 +0100, "michael adams"
wrote:


"Basil Jet" wrote in message news
On 2017\04\08 13:41, michael adams wrote:

Whereas in fact drivers should never find themselves in the position
where they're having to refuse take out trains as a direct result of slipshod
maintenance. As its their neck which will be on the line if anything goes
wrong.

That sounds like you're suggesting they'll be fired or disciplined if a fault develops,

The finger will point at them until such time as the evidence indicates
otherwise. Which might take days or weeks.

The general public without the requisite technical knowledge are probably
more likely as first at least to attribute any such occurance to operator
or driver error. As that's something everyone can understand,
Wereas the systems they're operating are supposedly designed
not to fail.

Same as with these wheel flats. As a member of the travelling public I've not a
got a clue whether there are any safety implications in driving with wheel flats.
Again I can't really believe that drivers weren't reporting this problem,
before all of a sudden it became necessary for drivers to actually refuse to
take out trains and for the decision to be made to take large numbers
of trains out of service .

Drivers would certainly report wheel flats if they became aware of
them, but a flat somewhere in the middle of the train may not be
audible in the cab. So a member of station staff or even a passenger
may report a bad one. That's a fault that is easy to check, and it's
part of the driver's job if s/he becomes aware of one.

If it's a bad flat, the train will be withdrawn from service. The
problem arises with rare, intermittent faults that are hard to
reproduce (such as the doors that allegedly opened spontaneously
between stations).


There's plenty in the news about drivers being disciplined or dismissed
for various offences. I've yet to read anywhere of a single member
of the LT management or Board (if such still exists) being dismissed
as a result of their decision to cut back on wheel maintainence and
inspections on the Picaddilly Line.

That wasn't what caused the wheel flats. There hadn't been any
cutbacks on wheel maintenance or inspections.


when it's more that they will have a really horrific day
if a door opens unexpectedly and a few people fall off a moving tube train.

How many people other than his fellow drivers will accept that the
door opened "unexpectedly" for any other reason than that the
driver somehow opened it himself by accident ?

There's no way a driver could open a single passenger door while the
train was on the move, so no-one would blame him if it happened. The
question was whether the reports of such door openings were spurious.