Interesting Status Message

It was suspended earlier. Luckily the circle was still running to Hammersmith.

A police request can originate from many things....

Security checks, trespasser on the railway, removal of items following a one under, a declared scene of crime, removal of evidence from a scene of crime, event crowd management, external issue likely to affect the railway, external scene of crime right outside a station, facilitating the arrest of suspects, facilitating evidence gathering.......there are many, many more....

Yes indeed - the key word though is 'request'.

We'll usually oblige if at all possible though as the circumstances relating to such requests are more often than not extremely legitimate.

@ Colin: good to clear that up in my mind.

@ Harry: Obstruction of Justice vs. Obstruction of Railway Operations?

I believe the MP have more 'clout' over LUL these days but it wasn't so years ago. My recollection is that the situation changed in the early 1980s, before then police work on the Underground was subject to BTP i.e. the MP had to be invited. In fact I believe that quite a lot changed around then in that police are police with powers of arrest wherever they are so these days BTP can arrest off railway premises and the Met can arrest on railway premises but there was a time when the jurisdiction of each was finite and defined.
As I remember it LU's BTP were extremely short staffed in the 1980s and 'borrowed' 50 MP officers for a year to maintain BTP strength until it could be rebuilt. I believe it was also from then that MP were granted travel privileges on LU too.
Of course a great deal has altered in three decades, there was always a level of co-operation between BTP and New Scotland Yard but over the years there has been far more integration as a result of accidents, incidents and constantly evolving policing policy in the capital.

Finger error by the editor?

They can have as much clout as they like, but it's me who gets the current off. You tend to lose a bit of clout with 630 volts in your rear ;D

Seriously though, I think the differences between the Met and BTP are more "in house" in their own forces than noticeable by us. There have been occasions where we are told the Met is heading to an incident, only then to be told the BTP have stepped in and taken over - maybe planned, but sometimes you get a whiff of rivalry.

Well, BTP do have the same powers as OB, it's just that they range further. OB are restricted to the areas they are employed in whereas BTP can be on a train from Aberdeen to KX and have the same power in London as they would in Aberdeen.

Myself, BTP and OB don't have a successful relationship.....

fail, how many will we get? still, some of the gems are PAs...

I saw, years ago, a then allegedly comprehensive list of reasons given for train delays on National Rail (iirc it dates from the early days of privatisation). One of the reasons given was that the train was being held (at Darlington I think) because the police were on the train to make an arrest.
I expect that got a reaction from passengers!

IIRC, in his autobiography "I Tried to Run a Railway" Gerry Fiennes described the occasion when, as General Manager at Paddington (this of course is the mainline station, then Western Region) he took over the PA one rush hour to announce that that day's - considerable - delays and cancellations were due to "gross management incompetence".

He was deeply hurt that not one of the passengers on the Lawn paid the slightest attention. What did he expect - that they'd spontaneously break into applause?