Chris wrote:
My questions a
1. Why did the only audiable announcment say "because of an earlier
incident" instead of a reason and why did the LU chap on the platform
with
the white wand not do any announcments?

You have my sympathies, Chris. Today was a complete cock-up for the
entire District Line, and you're right, the Wimbledon branch always
seems to suffer more than Ealing or Richmond!
To try and answer your questions, the announcements at Earl's Court are
now generally made using the pre-recorded voice system they've just had
installed. Not sure why it was saying an 'incident' rather than
'signal failure/emergency engineering work', I have no idea.
As for the SA with the baton, I can't answer for him!

2. Why couldn't the empty Ealing Broadway train which was
immediately
behind another Ealing bdy train have been made into a Wimbledon one?

If there was a train running empty, it would have been defective in
some way, and on its way to the depot at Ealing Common. I've never
known a train be permitted to run empty just because of late running
etc.

3. Why were there no C stock trains around in either direction

The C stocks were around, but because of the delays through the City,
everything was being queued up waiting to get into Earl's Court because
of train crews being in the wrong places etc. I would guess that the C
stocks must have been stuck up towards Edgware Road.

4. Why is it always the Wimbledon branch that is most affected?

Usually when there's a problem, the Wimbledon branch still gets a
reasonable service. The main problem with that branch is the large
amount of failures which actually occur on it! The section between
East Putney and Wimbledon is signalled and controlled by Network Rail,
and there is a long standing problem down there with signals 'bobbing'
with the slightest shower of rain! Hopefully this will be addressed
before too long.

and finally 4. When will the tubes ETA service be expanded to the
District
line

That's the million pound question! I wouldn't hold your breath...

I thought that since a lot of drivers post here it's better to ask
this way
than via customer services who "can only appologise" and hope "with
the
onset of PPP" everything will be sorted out

Good old Customer Services! All I can say is that we drivers can't
control where we go! If the Line Controller tells us to divert to
Ealing or Richmond, there's nothing we can do about it! The controller
should be monitoring each of the branches to make sure that there's a
fair service to each. It really depends on which controller is working
at the time, and whether he's been given orders from the Duty
Operations Manager.
Ealing Broadway also suffered a bit, as I noticed 4 consecutive
Richmond services passing through Earl's Court at around 2100ish.

Hopefully that's answered your questions. I know it's frustrating (LU
staff have to use the District Line to commute as well!) but until we
get a huge investment in the line and replace the old 'technology' with
something a bit more reliable, these delays will, sadly, continue.