Post by antharro on May 10, 2014 15:14:11 GMT
I went to a gig last night in Camden and got the tube back to Tooting Broadway, leaving Camden at at about midnight. It was a Morden via Charing Cross service. The journey went fine until we got to Kennington, where there was the obligatory few minutes wait. On departure, the train crawled into the tunnel at just a couple of mph. There was a small speed increase but we never got up to line speed and eventually stopped for several minutes.
The train op made a PA telling us there were signal issues at Morden which were causing problems back to Kennington. We waited there for some time and from time to time I could hear other trains in the tunnel (presumably northbound trains leaving Oval ahead). When we finally got moving again, it turned out we were only about a train length out of Oval's platforms. The train op made another announcement telling us we would not be moving from this platform until a platform at Stockwell was available. This was now due to both a signal and systems failure at Morden. We sat there for some time and finally moved on. Sitting at Stockwell, she told us that trains were now backing up to Euston. This was a particularly long wait, but just as she had finished her second announcement, she obviously got a green signal (or whatever the equivalent of that is now on the Northern) and made a third "actually, we're moving now, so get back on the train!" announcement which lightened the mood and made a few people laugh.
We passed through Clapham South and Balham pretty quickly with barely a wait, then sat at Tooting Bec for a while. Finally the powers that be decided to terminate the train there (presumably so it could sit in the tunnel ahead and let another train sit at the platform) and we were asked to leave the train.
The train op's announcements were excellent and she kept us up to date regularly, even when there was no further information. I saw her on the platform and thanked her.
So I was wondering what the cause of the problem was. The train op told us it was a signal and systems failure at Morden. I'm also wondering what measures were used to try and keep the service running - were any trains terminated at Tooting Broadway and sent back up north to try and keep trains moving southbound? And further north, were any Morden trains terminated at Kennington?
The only sour note was that despite all this, the offical TfL line was that there were "minor" delays between Kennington and Morden. I don't consider a five-ten minute wait at each platform to be a "minor" delay, and I don't consider having a train terminated early to be "minor" delay, but that's what was showing on the TfL service status page, which I was checking at each station and when queueing for a bus. I eventually got home - waited for the N155 bus which didn't let anyone on as it was full (presumably it had picked up passengers from other terminated trains further up the line), so I got a taxi instead.
The train op made a PA telling us there were signal issues at Morden which were causing problems back to Kennington. We waited there for some time and from time to time I could hear other trains in the tunnel (presumably northbound trains leaving Oval ahead). When we finally got moving again, it turned out we were only about a train length out of Oval's platforms. The train op made another announcement telling us we would not be moving from this platform until a platform at Stockwell was available. This was now due to both a signal and systems failure at Morden. We sat there for some time and finally moved on. Sitting at Stockwell, she told us that trains were now backing up to Euston. This was a particularly long wait, but just as she had finished her second announcement, she obviously got a green signal (or whatever the equivalent of that is now on the Northern) and made a third "actually, we're moving now, so get back on the train!" announcement which lightened the mood and made a few people laugh.
We passed through Clapham South and Balham pretty quickly with barely a wait, then sat at Tooting Bec for a while. Finally the powers that be decided to terminate the train there (presumably so it could sit in the tunnel ahead and let another train sit at the platform) and we were asked to leave the train.
The train op's announcements were excellent and she kept us up to date regularly, even when there was no further information. I saw her on the platform and thanked her.
So I was wondering what the cause of the problem was. The train op told us it was a signal and systems failure at Morden. I'm also wondering what measures were used to try and keep the service running - were any trains terminated at Tooting Broadway and sent back up north to try and keep trains moving southbound? And further north, were any Morden trains terminated at Kennington?
The only sour note was that despite all this, the offical TfL line was that there were "minor" delays between Kennington and Morden. I don't consider a five-ten minute wait at each platform to be a "minor" delay, and I don't consider having a train terminated early to be "minor" delay, but that's what was showing on the TfL service status page, which I was checking at each station and when queueing for a bus. I eventually got home - waited for the N155 bus which didn't let anyone on as it was full (presumably it had picked up passengers from other terminated trains further up the line), so I got a taxi instead.
And a push-out in the rain must have been a tedious and not very successful venture!
