Manual driving on automated lines

So on the Northern Line with no visible colour light signals at all, how does the driver know when it is safe to proceed? I'm assuming there is some sort of in-cab display. What happens if this fails?

Are Saturdays on the Central Line sometimes also authorised for manual?

Most interesting, Tut. From the point of view of the passenger, is there any way of knowing if a particular train is being driven manually? I sometimes observe that the old "speed up, longer platform break for tea/fag/wee" technique is being used, and sometimes I suspect the 62mph line speed limit is being breached... Or is all this subject to Big Brother regulation by line control nowadays?

Well, obviously you can look through the window as the train pulls in and you can usually tell if the TBC is in stow, or if its out and in use. That obviously only means it was being driven manually when it arrived, the driver may have switched it back into Auto, but that's usually your biggest clue.

If you're lucky, you might hear the ATP chimes over the PA, which you will only hear in Coded, they don't sound in Auto.

Otherwise the only way you can really tell is through your bottom. Human driving does tend to feel a little different. Stops are very often softer, there's less of a jerk, but the rate of deceleration is more variable. Auto tends to brake almost constantly, before easing off right at the last moment, whereas with humans, there's more variability, the braking is frequently less hard, and sometimes the train will almost rock as the amount of braking is varied. There are other things, too. Humans tend to coast more, especially on the approach to red signals/0 target speeds, they tend to be a little more intelligent and the ride feels less jerky. Auto tends to drive as fast as possible and brake as late as possible and accelerate as hard as possible. Humans, less so. Auto also always accelerates away from a station as quickly as it can, whereas some humans accelerate more gradually. However, especially with the nature of the display and the variability of the target speed, you may find humans stabbing at the brakes to keep the speed under the target a little more often, and similar with the motors. Auto can be more consistent, I would have to concede. Not always, some Central line drivers are absolutely superb, but sometimes.

However, the best your bottom can give you is an informed estimate, the only people who really know are the driver, and the people up in Wood Lane, who can see on their diagrams what mode their trains are in.

The ceiling is 85 kph - 53 mph - post Chancery Lane. It can get pretty choppy up there, but I would doubt that ceiling is being exceeded. As you know, following a software update, Auto cannot exceed 85, but the target speed will get to 100 and the ATP will allow humans to drive that fast, but you would be in serious trouble if you got caught doing that and everybody knows that. There's no good reason for anyone to take that risk. The ATP however will not allow you to get much faster than 100 kph (62 mph).

I thought it was Sunday's and Bank Holiday's

The colour light signals can't really be said to make Coded Manual more simple in themselves, I wouldn't say. They're installed at junctions, where their route indicators are valuable, but that's not really that big a deal. They're installed at stations, where they are definitely a nice feature, because you can glance at a big colour light, but that goes for Auto as well. Then there are the remaining ones in between, which aren't that plentiful. I have read that the main reason for their installation was early suggestions of possibly running non-ATP fitted trains, such as engineers trains, to colour light signals, but that was abandoned. That may just be a rumour, though, and mainly they're useful for trains in RM. The rest of the time, I mean, the light doesn't tell you the target speed. Well, the red light does tell you that the target speed is zero, but the white and green lights do not give you the target speed. Also, the red light may be some distance away when you first see it and there may be a few block marker boards between you and it at which the target speed will be checked down, so it's the in cab display that really matters. The colour lights are presumably a nice thing to aim for, slightly easier to see than a block marker board maybe? I've never driven a Central line train, but it hardly seems plausible that this is a major factor. You could have only block marker boards and it wouldn't make a huge difference to Coded Manual or Auto operation, really. It would make both of them slightly less ergonomic, as I say, the colour lights are great as station starters and handy at junctions, but it wouldn't have a huge effect on how you drive. It'd make RM operation impossible though!

What is a major factor is fixed block signalling. Them block marker boards and signals don't move, they're always in the same place, and you have a fixed target to aim at. The target speed drops in managed stages. The target speed and target point aren't constantly updating and changing and moving. The system is also less of a pig and it doesn't enforce its driving style on you as much. It gives you the speed you should be doing and the lineside signage and signals give you the point at which you should be doing that speed and then it leaves you to achieve that goal in your own way.


As stated above by North End it more or less is.


Yes it does obviate the need for lineside signals. Route secure visuals are provided wherever there are points for degraded working, but that's all you need. Lineside signals do not integrate very well into moving block signalling and would be of very little value. They would just be expensive to install and maintain and offer no return. RM hold boards suffice for degraded conditions.


It depends on the individual train and what equipment it's fitted with. They are operated manually.

Lineside signals will only remain on the fast lines north of Harrow on The Hill for the Chilterns and on the 4 track between Barons Court and Hanger Lane Junction and of course the Wimbledon and Richmond Lines