In article .com,
" writes
On Wednesday morning, at aboutn 9.50a.m. there was some sort of
Victoria Line problem on the Northbound line into Victoria - according
to a station announcer a train was due to "come out of a siding"
(somewhere between Victoria and Pimlico?)

At the south end of Victoria station.

to be the next Northbound
train but there was a signal problem, and the line became blocked.

Sounds like something prevented the points being restored to face the
northbound running line while, at the same time, preventing anything
coming out of the sidings. Offhand I can't see how a single failure
could cause that, but that may just be lack of imagination on my part.

So, for some reason the next Southbound train to arrive at Victoria was
terminated at Victoria, and all of us waiting on the Northbound
platform were directed onto that train.

Good thinking on someone's part. At this point you can't allow any more
trains north from Pimlico. So, unless you want to leave passengers in
tunnels for an unknown length of time, you're limited to 8 trains in
total south of Victoria (there being 4 stations with 2 platforms each).
Since it is possible to run the line as if Victoria was the southern
terminus, that would at least keep the service running.

The train was evacuated of
angry Southbound passengers, the train sealed, carriage by carriage,
and then re-opened carriage by carriage for Northbound passengers to
board, all watched by furious Southbound passengers who then had to
wait on the platform.

How would you do it without even more confusion?

Then came an announcement that they could not get the signal to allow
that train to leave the Southbound platform in a Northerly direction. I
spoke to the driver, who confirmed that "I can't get the signal".

Oh dear oh dear. Not a good day. Presumably the reversing crossover
failed in some way.

A few minutes later came the announcement that "All Victoria Line
services are now suspended".

Predictable.

1. Was it inevitable that there would be difficulty in the Southbound
train trying to travel North out of the Southbound platform?

No.

For
example, maybe this was impossible because the next following
Southbound train was in block and therefore preventing any other train
from "reversing" into its block, even if only to use the cross-over to
the Northbound?

The following train would be stopped at the previous signal or block
post, which would be before the crossovers. So I don't see that as an
explanation.

2. How on Earth could such a localised problem on a section South of
Victoria effectively paralyse the entire line in both directions?

See above. It wasn't one localised problem, it was two separate
problems.

Aren't there procedures in place to allow, for example (as presumably
was attempted here), turning trains at Victoria and then continuing a
Victoria - Walthamstow service, cutting out the Brixton section?

Yes, which is what you've described happening! It's just that those also
failed.

For all I know, the problem may have been rectified within minutes (it
certainly was by the time I arrived at Highbury an hour later, by bus),

It's possible that the line was cut back to Warren Street - Walthamstow;
IIRC, Warren Street is the next crossover back.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
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