Closure from Edgware Rd to High St

You'd think the BBC of all people would notice the absence of Wood Lane.

I have to say, as an Edgware Road user about 2 times per week, I am impressed with signage and information.

They have both obliterated via Bayswater services from all permanent signage by very neat white adhesive vinyl (?) laid completely over the top of route diagrams etc, and route closure notices writ large at every conceivable useful location. As well, ''platform closed'' on the DMIs for 2 & 3.

Ok Ok I knew the Bayswater blockade was taking place, but even so anyone there would have to be a total troll to not work out something was happening. Of course, that don't stop passenger *arriving* there through lack of info elsewhere.

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Nick

Its better to do it in July/August as this is the time when the least amount of people use the Underground

All platforms will not be lengthened, Bayswater/Paddington etc. and D Stock is not equipped with SDO, only "this end" and "rear" door cut-outs.

It is the front two and rear two - then how would the driver see the PLATFORM based OPO monitors? (retro-fit D Stock with in-cab CCTV?)

Let us not go down this road. D-stock has always fitted in Edgware Road platforms - and indeed I have witnessed a couple of such occasions where this was proven.

The platforms have always been longer than 6 cars of C-stock. The signalling prior to 1996 allowed trains to use the entire length of the platforms but overlaps were marginal to say the least. After re-signalling in 1996 the platforms were tied down to 6-car lengths. From the next re-signalling some of the platform length will be regained in a controlled manner.

D-stock has never fitted at Notting Hill Gate, Bayswater or Paddington, and none of the works going on will make that happen either.

S7 stock will be able to use all the above stations, albeit with certain doors cut-out.

There are some factors that will always come into play at such a location:

• It is a timetable regulating point - if trains are running early, the signaller will hold trains to time
  
• It is a crew relief point - if a driver isn't in position to time.....
  
• Uniquely at Edgware Road, every single train movement is manually signalled - the signaller may be on the telephone, radio or distracted by something else at a particular moment and thus a train may suffer a small delay as a consequence

Surely querying their expenses would be much more effective?

if only the 'regulation' or more so 'operation' of LU trains were so simple !

additional run times pop in and out all over the network at various times throughout the day (more often than not in the 2 peaks) to reflect the additional dwell time at certain stations

also additional run times are often added on terminus approaches in order for platforms to clear and in the sense of true terminus stations (ie Cockfosters) to prevent parallel moves

in some cases trains will not need those additional run times, ie during holiday periods when loadings are lighter, and will therefore be held outside a station awaiting booked arrival time

it is desireable to 'stand' a train in a platform, however many stations have auto signals so this is not possible, therefore they will depart slightly ahead of schedule and wait outside the next control signal for their booked path

Others have assisted in answering your points, but I'd like to exercise my right to reply if I may....

I did read and fully understood what you said the first time. However you have made an assumption that things actually work in the way you think they should rather than how they actually do.

It is not uncommon to have trains running early during engineering works as there are generally less of them. In the case of Edgware Road you don't have Terminating Circles & Districts getting in the way; nor do you have all the conflicts that would normally slow things down at Praed Street junction.

If some trains are running early, it is inevitable that at some point one train is going to catch up with another in front, and that the one in front may well still be occupying the platform ahead cos it is actually on time or being held to time. This isn't particularly unusual - it certainly happens quite often on the approaches to Earls Court.

Trains can easily run early as not all areas where signallers can control signals are actually used (they're simply left in auto through working), and of course there are areas where there are only automatic signals - faster drivers will naturally pass through these areas quicker than slower drivers.

You have a point with Hammersmith but I don't know Rayners Lane that well - does it not have any through working capability? It certainly has push buttons in the Uxbridge area so not all moves are fully by lever only.

Since when did I say all delayed train movements are down to the signaller being distracted? Let's not blow things out of proportion here!! I was merely suggesting a possible reason for your particular train being delayed may have been X, Y or Z.

Again I never said that all train delays were down to crew reliefs. Your particular delay might have been caused by such an event, but then again it might not have been.

As others have hinted at, there are other more general reasons for a delay being caused to a train in the platform ahead - passengers holding doors open (or some other obstruction), passenger alarm operated, train defect being attended to by a train technician, train being reformed into another with an associated crew change (this will almost always incur a small extra delay as the driver, train number, radio & destination may well need changing), station staff searching for lost property, station staff (or police) removing a passenger, etc, etc, etc....

Even us drivers do actually want to get from A to B as well but unfortunately the odd delay here and there is often just the way it is.

And what I am saying is that while all the excuses given above are possible, probability of me passing through Edgware Road 6 times and getting delays in tunnels on 3 of them is just too much for me to accept there is not something fundamentally wrong here.

1 of the trips I did replay trackernet when I got to my desk and I could see no reason for being held.



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Nick

As a result of the works, it meant a couple of C Stock were operating between Earls Court and Kensington Olympia

Here's a photo I took of a C stock at Olympia from last week. Train number 151: www.flickr.com/photos/15265256@N03/5966678497

Yesterday on the way to Ealing Common I saw an EB C Stock train at 'Hammersmith', which JulianG kindly corrected on Twitter, which I then corrected to 'C Stock at District and Piccadilly Hammersmith'