On Sat, 30 Aug 2003 20:43:42 +0100 someone who may be Paul Terry
wrote this:-

If traction current is lost and the decision is
made to de-train passengers, what do you do if power is restored while
that process is still underway,

Deciding to do so is not a decision made in the blink of an eye. It
needs to be thought-out and communicated to those in charge of the
power supply and signalling [1]. Before evacuating trains staff will
place short-circuiting bars on the conductor rails to prevent them
being energised and then conduct the passengers away. It is a long
slow process and once started finishing will cause far less
disruption than trying to stop it.

[1] From a handful or reports it seems that the BR signalling
continued working on standby generators. Does anyone know how LU
signalling behaves in similar circumstances?

and how do you recover from the mess of
trains stuck half in stations, some clear of passengers and others not,
and of trains stuck in tunnels?

Presumably someone is detailed to walk through a section, checking
for passengers, advising train staff and watching them put
short-circuiting bars back in the train. Then it can be energised.

If you mean that LU should go back to generating
(70% I think it was) of its own power usage, that would mean an enormous
investment (think "tube fares") and I don't know that it would really be
the answer

Probably not. It will be interesting to see how reliable the current
arrangement is over say a decade, compared to the old one (which
suffered several bad power failures).


--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me using the RIP Act 2000.