On Feb 17, 8:23*pm, Paul Corfield wrote:
On Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:06:08 -0800 (PST), wrote:
So my wife has got stuck because of the victoria line being down. Just
how many "signal" failures per day are there? Would it not be possible
to design something which doesn't fail quite so damn often and also
design procedures so reversing trains doesn't take forever so at least
the rest of the line can continue running some semblance of a service?

Not many at all on the Victoria Line in my experience over recent
months. Considering work is still continuing I am surprised it's been as
good as it has. *New conductor rail is now appearing on the north end of
the line.

This morning I was caught immediately behind the first train failure -
the report was that a set of doors had been knocked off their track by a
passenger. *I'm guessing that's because they barged their way into the
train at the last second at Seven Sisters and when the train was
entering Finsbury Park (downward slope and bend) that the door moved
sufficiently for the brakes to apply. The train ended up half in, half
out of F Park s/b platform.

We eventually made it in but then got stuck while the failed train
reversed at Highbury. *Needless to say that as we were the first train
through for about 20 minutes the platforms were a bit busy!

I see that there was then a subsequent signal failure at Victoria -
don't know the cause yet. *That resulted in multiple partial line
suspensions and then a full line suspension at the height of the peak.

I would agree that signal failures are not acceptable but they can
happen for all sorts of reasons. To effect quick turnarounds you need to
roster in "stepping back" which is used at Brixton. However you can't
just magic drivers out of nowhere to make it happen at Warren St or
Highbury when there is a major disruption. *I know you'll say that's a
typical useless LUL response but it's an honest one.

When I tried to get on at Victoria this morning the information was
that it was suspended between Brixton and Warren Street. I was
surprised that they could turn round at Warren Street (if they really
did). I suppose there is one crossover.