London power problems
 

The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?

London power problems
 

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 13:30:56 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:

The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?

A complete guess on my part but I would imagine there has been a failure
either at a bulk supply point between the national electricity network
and the LU one or there is a cable related problem on the high voltage
network. It's hard to say whether that is national grid or LU side.

The stations and lines that are affected point to a bulk supply point
problem in North West London as has happened before.

There have been a lot of electricity network problems but that is hardly
new news given widespread concerns about the integrity of and investment
in our electricity network as a result of privatisation.

I'm sure I will know more tomorrow morning when I read the weekend
reports.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

London power problems
 

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 13:30:56 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:

The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?

A complete guess on my part but I would imagine there has been a failure
either at a bulk supply point between the national electricity network
and the LU one or there is a cable related problem on the high voltage
network. It's hard to say whether that is national grid or LU side.

The stations and lines that are affected point to a bulk supply point
problem in North West London as has happened before.

There have been a lot of electricity network problems but that is hardly
new news given widespread concerns about the integrity of and investment
in our electricity network as a result of privatisation.

I'm sure I will know more tomorrow morning when I read the weekend
reports.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

My understanding is that it is an EDF fault at St Johns Wood

London power problems
 

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:47:11 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:


"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 13:30:56 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:

The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?

A complete guess on my part but I would imagine there has been a failure
either at a bulk supply point between the national electricity network
and the LU one or there is a cable related problem on the high voltage
network. It's hard to say whether that is national grid or LU side.

My understanding is that it is an EDF fault at St Johns Wood

Out of curiosity how and when did you find that out given that you posed
the original question?
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

London power problems
 

James Salisbury wrote:
The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?

According to LBC earlier parts of Camden were affected by a big power
failure earlier

London power problems
 

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:47:11 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:


"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
. ..
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 13:30:56 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:

The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed
and
various other closures. What is going on?

A complete guess on my part but I would imagine there has been a failure
either at a bulk supply point between the national electricity network
and the LU one or there is a cable related problem on the high voltage
network. It's hard to say whether that is national grid or LU side.

My understanding is that it is an EDF fault at St Johns Wood

Out of curiosity how and when did you find that out given that you posed
the original question?
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

It was stated on Radio BBC London that "EDF say there is a fault at St John
Wood". It also makes sense as BBC london themselves and the traffic lights
in the area are in darkness. If it was an LUL side fault I would have
expected various lines to be closed and doom stories about the underground
being shut but few problems elsewhere.

London power problems
 

Paul Corfield wrote:

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 13:30:56 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:

The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?

A complete guess on my part but I would imagine there has been a failure
either at a bulk supply point between the national electricity network
and the LU one or there is a cable related problem on the high voltage
network. It's hard to say whether that is national grid or LU side.

The stations and lines that are affected point to a bulk supply point
problem in North West London as has happened before.

There have been a lot of electricity network problems but that is hardly
new news given widespread concerns about the integrity of and investment
in our electricity network as a result of privatisation.

I'm sure I will know more tomorrow morning when I read the weekend
reports.
--
Paul C


I'd be most interested if you could tell us anything about how
Greenwich power station fits into the whole picture. I'm under the
impression it exists to provide an emergency electricity supply for the
LU network [1] - but is it just enough to power say emergency
tunnel/station lights, sump pumps and communications or could it
provide enough power for a line to operate normally?


An aside for anyone who might be interested - I wondered for a long
time why LU had a power station in Greenwich, which pre-Jubilee line
extension was nowhere near any of the Underground network, until I read
recently that it was originally constructed to generate electricity for
LCC's tramways [2].

The LCC Tramway operation was duly absorbed into the new London
Transport Passenger Board on it's formation in 1933, which is how this
power station in south-east London ended up supplying the Underground
network (not sure of exactly when the requisite connections were made
to the Underground network, possibly in the 1930's?). I'm unclear as to
whether LU still actually own the site, or whether ownership has now
passed to Seeboard Powerlink, who are responsible for running it.

The power station is an interesting bit of old industrial London -
though unless you're looking carefully you may well not realise it's
still in use. The pier that used to take coal to the power station is
disused as the fuel now burnt there is gas [3]. If you're in Greenwich
it's worth walking past - it's just beyond the Naval school, and
there's two pubs deserving of a visit in the vicinity, The Trafalgar
and the Cutty Sark Tavern (a name that's slightly confusing as it's not
in the immediate proximity of the tea clipper).


[1] Hansard - see under 'Seeboard Powerlink consortium'
http://www.publications.parliament.u...t/91207w08.htm

[2] Greenwich Industrial Historical Society
http://gihs.gold.ac.uk/gihs2.html#gps

[3] PortCities London
http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/...r-Station.html

London power problems
 

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 19:43:36 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:


"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 14:47:11 +0100, "James Salisbury"
wrote:
My understanding is that it is an EDF fault at St Johns Wood

Out of curiosity how and when did you find that out given that you posed
the original question?

It was stated on Radio BBC London that "EDF say there is a fault at St John
Wood". It also makes sense as BBC london themselves and the traffic lights
in the area are in darkness.

OK.

If it was an LUL side fault I would have
expected various lines to be closed and doom stories about the underground
being shut but few problems elsewhere.

The electrical distribution network is designed so as not to knock out
the whole system. The number of problems caused by failures on the EDF
network is getting larger by the week. Unless something is done very
quickly to improve the resilience of London's electricity supply network
I cannot see how the city can grow or provide the Olympics.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

London power problems
 

victormeldrewsyoungerbrother wrote:
The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?


As usual, the BBC can naswer your questions:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/travel/p..._feature.shtml

Useful site, but really more of a "what" than a "why" - I suspect the
OP was more looking for the latter...

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

London power problems
 

Paul Corfield wrote:
The electrical distribution network is designed so as not to knock out
the whole system. The number of problems caused by failures on the EDF
network is getting larger by the week. Unless something is done very
quickly to improve the resilience of London's electricity supply network
I cannot see how the city can grow or provide the Olympics.

(EDF = Electricite de France)

Is this an underhand plot to scupper London's Olympic hopes in revenge
for defeating Paris last year, then? ;-)

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

London power problems
 

Stuart wrote:
James Salisbury wrote:
The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?

According to LBC earlier parts of Camden were affected by a big power
failure earlier


Well, loads of lines were closed for "planned engineering work", which
seems to have confused the issue.

It seems that power supply problems affected many lines in the central
area. I overheard a radio message to this effect.

Certainly Warren Street and Euston were closed.

At London Bridge on the Jubilee, the announcer was saying "... we can't
give any more information because the control centre as Neasden is
refusing to tell us what is happening ... the control centre at Neasden
can't be bothered to tell us where trains are going and when ..." (I
don't know what happens to staff who give idiosyncratic announcements
on these lines).

A train pulled in with Waterloo as the destination. The driver then
announced that it was going to run through to Stanmore, but that some
stations were closed, but he couldn't tell us which. On the grounds
that I wanted to get out at a specific station, and that despite the
announcement, the train showed no signs of moving, I bailed out to the
Northern.

London power problems
 

James Salisbury wrote:
The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line closed and
various other closures. What is going on?

Initial report indicated a major fault at the Kingsway sub station. It
affectted W1, W2 and N1 postcodes, from about 12:40ish. The cause was
later identified as a problem transformer at St Johns Wood, and was
back 2 hours later.

London power problems
 

On 23 Jul 2006 15:03:26 -0700, "John B" wrote:

....
(EDF = Electricite de France)

Is this an underhand plot to scupper London's Olympic hopes in revenge
for defeating Paris last year, then? ;-)

EdF (aka EDF or trendy new "EDF Energy") got a bad slagging in France
for unpatriotic sponsoring of every bid for the annoying 5 circles of
fraud - the phrase "mettre le drapeau dans la poche" = bung the flag
(French one) into the pocket, was used often and disparagingly for the
state monopoly [disregard any "le"-for-"la"vv in the above]. So
they're not really anti London Olympics, it's rock and roll for them
and a pushover country to do business with to take surplus nuclear
power. Much as RWE see Thames Water shaking with real fear before the
mighty Ofwat and its huge GBP 0.00 fines (value approx. EUR 0.00 to 2
decimal places).

--
Old anti-spam address cmylod at despammed dot com appears broke
So back to cmylod at bigfoot dot com

London power problems
 

MIG wrote:

A train pulled in with Waterloo as the destination. The driver then
announced that it was going to run through to Stanmore, but that some
stations were closed, but he couldn't tell us which. On the grounds
that I wanted to get out at a specific station, and that despite the
announcement, the train showed no signs of moving, I bailed out to the
Northern.

This sort of thing is most of the problem. On an aging network,
problems will occur, but communication seems pretty much without
exception to fail when they do.

The honesty of staff is perhaps admirable, but it does show the cracks.

Neil

London power problems
 

MIG wrote:

At London Bridge on the Jubilee, the announcer was saying "... we can't
give any more information because the control centre as Neasden is
refusing to tell us what is happening ... the control centre at Neasden
can't be bothered to tell us where trains are going and when ..." (I
don't know what happens to staff who give idiosyncratic announcements
on these lines).


Ah yes, as the driver of the Seven Sisters train said the other day, as
the train pulled into the wrong platform:

"Apparently, this train will be going to Walthamstow. Obviously, we've
got the Chuckle Brothers working in the control room again."

London power problems
 

In article .com,
(Paul Weaver) wrote:

James Salisbury wrote:
The tube seems to be takeing a battering with the bakerloo line
closed and various other closures. What is going on?

Initial report indicated a major fault at the Kingsway sub station.
It affectted W1, W2 and N1 postcodes, from about 12:40ish. The cause
was later identified as a problem transformer at St Johns Wood, and was
back 2 hours later.

If you say so. No-one told 7222 1234 as they told me King's Cross tube
station was still closed when I range them at 15:25.

--
Colin Rosenstiel