Or, why, when things go wrong, do they go so disastrously wrong?

Got to Charing Cross at 0650 on Monday 21st April to find that the
Bakerloo Line was suspended between Paddington and Queen's Park.
Fine, I thought, I only need to go as far as Paddington. Got down to
the platform, not many people waiting, assumed that things would be
all right. Sign on the indicator showed a train due in 3 mins.

After waiting FIFTEEN minutes with no announcements, a train finally
turned up. This then crawled to Piccadilly Circus, waited there
another ten minutes, crawled to Oxford Circus, waited there about
another five minutes, then crawled again up to Regent's Park. All
this with no announcements at all, and with fifteen minutes worth of
clear tunnel in front of it! Then when we got to Regent's Park, the
driver suddenly said that the train would be terminating at
Marylebone.

Now, I know things do go wrong from time to time, but why was there
any need for things to be like this? They had isolated the line south
of Paddington. Presumably the controllers knew how many trains they
had to deal with, so could regulate the frequency and provide
information on how long it would be between services. There hadn't
been a train for fifteen minutes, so why did the one that finally
showed up run so slowly and then (even more) short run? And of course
there were no announcements at all. Surely this situation could have
been handled better, with at least a skeleton service running south of
Paddington, and running properly rather than crawling and short
running. Or am I being unrealistic?

Trying not to rant...would just like to understand what happened and
why it wasn't dealt with better. It does seem to be a common issue
with the tube; when something goes wrong, they're singularly unable to
quickly arrange the alternative service (in this case, just running
trains between Paddington and Elephant & Castle).

Patrick

On Apr 22, 1:04 pm, Patrick Osborne wrote:
showed up run so slowly and then (even more) short run? And of course
there were no announcements at all. Surely this situation could have
been handled better, with at least a skeleton service running south of
Paddington, and running properly rather than crawling and short
running. Or am I being unrealistic?

Yes. Neither LU nor the majority of its staff give a sh1t about the
passengers as the lack of info in your journey once again
demonstrates. Make sure you get your money back:

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/tickets/r...nd/default.asp

B2003

Bakerloo is probably the worst line out of deep-level ones - old
stock, twisted tunnels, and no reversal points between Paddington and
Elephant & Castle. I'd imagine that it is very hard to regulate such
limited service (Paddington to Elephant & Castle) and probably in
opposite directions there was severe overcrowding. Also due to
disruption been very early - it might have been that most trains did
not make it to the separated section from the depot...

On Apr 22, 2:29 pm, alex_t wrote:
Bakerloo is probably the worst line out of deep-level ones - old
stock, twisted tunnels, and no reversal points between Paddington and
Elephant & Castle. I'd imagine that it is very hard to regulate such

Isn't there one at piccadilly circus, or is that out of use?

B2003

On 22 Apr, 14:29, alex_t wrote:
Bakerloo is probably the worst line out of deep-level ones - old
stock, twisted tunnels, and no reversal points between Paddington and
Elephant & Castle.

As Boltar says, I thought there was one at Piccadilly Circus; I'm sure
I've seen the Bakerloo shut south of Piccadilly Circus before. This
was initially why I thought the train from Charing Cross was crawling
towards Piccadilly, that it was having to wait for a reversing train,
but the numbers of people waiting at Piccadilly didn't seem to bear
that out.

I'd imagine that it is very hard to regulate such
limited service (Paddington to Elephant & Castle) and probably in
opposite directions there was severe overcrowding.

Clearly it is, my question is why is it difficult? Admittedly I'm
looking at it from the layman's perspective (which is why I'm
asking!), but to my way of thinking, the signal fails, you switch onto
running from Paddington to E&C only. You see that on that stretch of
line there are, say, eight trains. You know it takes 20 minutes to
get between the two end points plus four mins to changeover. Which
means (I think) a train about every seven minutes in either
direction. But this wasn't happening.

Also due to
disruption been very early - it might have been that most trains did
not make it to the separated section from the depot...

Good point; I'm not sure how long before 0650 the line was closed
north of Paddington.

Like I said, not meaning to rant, and, unlike Boltar, I don't think
it's sheer bloody mindedness on the part of the staff. Just trying to
understand it all.

Patrick

Isn't there one at piccadilly circus, or is that out of use?

I remember reading on this newsgroup recently that indeed it is no
longer used. All recent service suspensions in central part were
Paddington to Elephant & Castle.

On Apr 22, 2:44 pm, Patrick Osborne wrote:
Also due to
disruption been very early - it might have been that most trains did
not make it to the separated section from the depot...

Good point; I'm not sure how long before 0650 the line was closed
north of Paddington.

Don't forget they also have a depot at London Road south of E&C so
there shouldn't have been a shortage of trains even if it was cut off
north of paddington.


Like I said, not meaning to rant, and, unlike Boltar, I don't think
it's sheer bloody mindedness on the part of the staff. Just trying to
understand it all.

Its not bloody mindedness , they simply don't care. How hard would it
have been for the driver to make a tannoy announcement even if its
only to apologise that he has no info and suggest taking an
alternative route because the journey might take a long time? Not hard
at all. But he didn't, which says it all really.

B2003

As Boltar says, I thought there was one at Piccadilly Circus

Looks like it is disused right now - I remember reading about that
recently.


Like I said, not meaning to rant, and, unlike Boltar, I don't think
it's sheer bloody mindedness on the part of the staff. Just trying to
understand it all.

I understand (you) :-)

By the way, to think of it - they had engineering works between
Paddington and Harrow & Wealdstone during the weekend. Could service
suspension be due to late finish?

On 22 Apr, 15:06, Boltar wrote:
On Apr 22, 2:44 pm, Patrick Osborne wrote:

Also due to
disruption been very early - it might have been that most trains did
not make it to the separated section from the depot...

Good point; I'm not sure how long before 0650 the line was closed
north of Paddington.

Don't forget they also have a depot at London Road south of E&C so
there shouldn't have been a shortage of trains even if it was cut off
north of paddington.

It actually joins the running lines just north of Lambeth North, and
effectively provides a reversing point as well.

Patrick Osborne wrote:
After waiting FIFTEEN minutes with no announcements, a train finally
turned up. This then crawled to Piccadilly Circus, waited there
another ten minutes, crawled to Oxford Circus, waited there about
another five minutes, then crawled again up to Regent's Park. All
this with no announcements at all

No announcements at all? I would have expected to have been serenaded at
each station with "Good services are in operation on all London
Underground lines", at the very least. All part of the service, you know.

I'm not quite sure if the lack of the oblivious announcement should be
seen as a positive development or an indication that the PA system was down.

ESB