Aldgate defective train/obstruction/emergency engi

I believe the tracks were realigned to allow the A stock not to foul the tunnel walls, but I don't know by how much. Accordingly to allow two D or S stocks the tracks may still be too close together (if they've not been removed that is)

Now that the MCH S/M is "custodian" of the Circle Line's status, as opposed to the S/C-L/C as before, I wonder how many "minor delays" have been covered up for political reasons? (Surely not!)

Indeed, can the Circle even have "minor delays" now? One cancellation means a possible 20 minute wait, in which case the passenger should be advised to "go another way", which is what the "severe delays" status is supposed to indicate.

Yes the early Sunday morning District reversers use or used to use it west to east.
Although no longer having to work weekends ;D I dont know if the early trains still do this move.
With a bit of forethought before removing the junction at St Mary's I am surprised this was not considered.
With the redundant points and equipment being ripped out on the East London line The infastructure costs would have been marginal I would think, had they been reused/recycled.

The MCH SM, and before that the DOM has always been the custodian of the status of each line. Certain elder SCs/LCs will give their opinion to NOC and some LIS's will pass on the SMs verdict to NOC, but at the end of the day the rule remains that the status is the SMs call.

The status message can be politically driven unfortunately. I am not about to expand on how the delay message decision is sometimes reached. On the other side, it cannot also ever fully cover every eventuality.

Despite what some people will have you believe, a cancellation on the Circle is now much, much rarer than it was, and trains either side are generally regulated to smooth the gaps. This new timetable, despite its critics, has so much more for us as controllers to use to cover gaps. The run-times and termini reversing times make each train a suitable tool.

To add a further twopence to the St Mary's Curve / Aldgate East debate:

A scheme to remodel St. Mary's Curve into a traffic siding was developed shortly before the closure of the East London Line. An 8-car S-stock fits admirably, with sufficient room for decent terminal arrangements at the east end and trap points at the west end. The plan was to replace the double junction on the District with a facing crossover followed by a connection off the westbound - this allowed track geometry to be optimised for the highest speed for District Line trains running over the junction.

The benefits of this proposal were that it would provide a bolthole following the remodelling of Whitechapel. Ultimately it was never taken forward.

MCH = Met/Circle/Hammersmith & City
NOC = Network Operations Centre (almost )
SC = Service Controller (new name for Line Controller)
SM = Service Manager
DOM = Duty Operations Manager (old name for Service Manager)
LIS = Line Information Specialist

I'm glad it is not just me. Actually it is not just regulation for early running, the e/b journey time has increased.

Since "the December changes" I hardly ever wait for less than a minute at Whitechapel (usually several minutes) and now also get regulated at Tower Hill for a minute or two most times as well. The whole section between Monument and Stepney Green has slowed to a frustrating crawl.

Of course, TfL will tell me I'm imagining it all...

It's sometimes nice to have a train which is running late, as it means the journey gets completed as quickly as possible. On the Northern Line at certain times of day it's possible to leave Edgware 10 mins late and still arrive at Morden on time.

Having said all this, the extra padding really does help with recovering from minor incidents, so I guess it's swings and roundabouts.

Why hasn't TfL had the balls to ask for some recompense for lost facilities from Crossrail? Opperationally they are swapping something very flexible for something less flexible. Surely a few (read: 'enough') mil. could be squeezed to convert the bay at Tower Hill to a through platform, and maybe do something similar at Barbican?

To assist in the smooth operation of the new timetables for the first few weeks/months some extra padding was added. It has meant that throughout this period service reliability has increased considerably - which lessens the pain from the changes themselves.

From what I hear, come the first revisions of the timetables, some of the padding will be removed, as the timetable will have bedded in.

Journey times have increased by a few minutes here and there, but the difference is the service as a whole is more reliable. No more huge gaps, especially at the end of the peaks, where the service is being reformed to right time. At this point it is a fair comment to make that you cannot have your cake and eat it.

After the reviews and revisions, hopefully the reliability will remain, but without so much queuing for time.

You have to keep in mind that the introduction of this timetable was just the first stage. It allowed us all to get used to it before losing Whitechapel, before the Olympics and before the S-stock. To get the first part to work, we all needed a little bit of slack to make sure it wasn't a disaster. From here on in though, improvements can be made.

Come on, show me one new thing in this world that worked 100% each and everytime and pleased everyone from the moment it was introduced.

Crossrail is also part of TfL.

Some Districts have a whopping 10 minute wait at Acton Town westbound. They should be held at Turnham Green (albeit for only two or three minutes), but the equipment doesn't work properly!

Does that same excuse apply to all the other points at which we are supposed to be "regulated"?

I've experimented a few times now, just following greens and the early running has not been regulated at all. End result is that I've sat at Acton Town West for 7 & 9 minutes, Earls Court West for 8 minutes, Tower Hill East for 6 & 8 minutes, Whitechapel East for 4 minutes several times and Barking East for up to 8 minutes on a regular basis.

Only once was I told by the signaller I would be held for a significant period of time - that was the Earls Court West for 8 minutes jobby.

There are now many new regulating points (Turnham Green being one) as well as old (Plaistow for example) where we are supposed to stand for between 30 seconds and 2 minutes yet we are very rarely, if ever, held at any of them. Those odd 30 seconds and minutes soon add up and before you know it we're running 5 minutes early and struggling to loose it.

And if we self regulate we have the controllers calling us up and asking if we have a problem.

By all means increase the running time in the peaks, but off peak it was never required - the only real problem is the central area in the peaks, and that was/is blamed on the junctions. It's not the junctions and never has been - the problem is the signalling system not having the capacity to cope.

It's so obvious I could scream!!

Think about this: we have the same running time from Tower Hill to Gloucester Road both peak and off peak. Off peak it's greens all the way. Peak time it's reds all the way. Off peak there are less trains about but come peak time there are more. Spot the obvious?

I had the District's performance manager in my cab a couple weeks back, and I told him all of the above. His reply was that he didn't accept what I was saying and that I should give the new timetable a chance. If you know him you'll know that is his standard response.

I've also noticed that the SATs staff on the platforms (the ones with bats) are trying to push trains through more quickly (presumably they've been told to ensure the new Circle works by cutting platform dwell time) - only trouble is on the train side we're trying to loose time. It really is a total joke.

Anyway, coming back on topic, sorry to dispell all the good work regarding the new sidings at St Mary's but it will never happen. The track has been plain lined, there is now a full height physical barrier and the tunnel telephone wires now run across the gap on concrete posts. It's a dead duck folks.

Oh yesh!

Due to a Picc with squeaky wipers. If the Programme Machines (which are now computers there) had been working properly (from SOT) then the District would have been held outside until its booked arrival time. Sadly the timing was defective and it just let it in without offering an "Out of Turn" warning...