On Thu, 1 Dec 2005 19:51:47 +0000, Phil Richards
wrote:

Approx 10:00 this morning was greeted by LUL staff at the top of the exits
to announce the Victoria Line was suspended between Walthamstow Central and
Highbury & Islington due to a person under a train.

Contingency plan to walk to the WAGN station was only to be met with staff
who announced their station was also closed "at the request of the BTP"
despite the incident being on the Victoria Line and WAGN trains were
running through non stop. Any ideas why the BTP opted to close that too?

A guess but it is virtually impossible to stop people alighting from the
WAGN trains to head to the Tube regardless of how many announcements are
made [1]. Given that, IIRC, the WAGN station stairs and corridors are
not what you would call spacious there may have been concerns about
serious overcrowding in a confined space as people diverting from the
tube ran into the people heading off WAGN trains to the Tube. The other
issue is that the WAGN train frequency is not very high and having to
deal with lots of people waiting for the Tube to resume as well as
people fed up with waiting for a train may have caused concern. Seven
Sisters is so busy that the local buses can overwhelmed very quickly if
the Tube ceases to run into town. As I say a complete guess and what
feels like a bit of an over reaction to me but I wasn't there so don't
know how busy the place was. I may know more tomorrow when I see the
daily report.

The only alternative is that there was a crime of some sort in the
vicinity of the WAGN station.

[1] I've seen this too many times at Walthamstow Central when the Vic
Line service has collapsed and everyone is trying to get to Liverpool
St.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!