Signal failure at Mile End

Does that mean there was no service at all on the East End of the line? (It appears to be open now) The wording seems vague.

My best uneducated guess is that I wonder if signal/control communications was lost between Central Line Control and the east end of the line, as there is usually a fallback of running shuttle services between Epping/Woodford/Hainault and Leytonstone.

So not signalling! Would it be something that initially presented as a track circuit issue?

Presumably there must have been some reason they weren't able to operate east of Leytonstone?

I received a "personal" apology from Mr Taggart (is he related to the lugubrious, and dead, Glasgow detective?) at 1352, which states ***
I am writing to apologise for the disruption to the Central line service this morning.

This was a result of a signal failure caused by a broken rail in the Mile End area. Our engineers worked as quickly as possible to restore your train service; unfortunately this repair could not be completed until after the morning peak. ****

So signal failure first and broken rail second according to LU, possibly because signal failure sounds tecchie and minor, whereas a broken rail sounds Hatfield, Potters Bar, etc and scary.

Root cause is surely lack of routine inspection, although of course a rail has to break at a particular moment in time.
BTW, there was a service on the northern parts of the line of sorts, but since I wasn't travelling today, I didn't have to sample it.

I miss Ceiling Cat [/off topic]

Initially as stated, then advertised as east of Liverpool Street due to severe overcrowding at stations, although shuttle services continued to run between Woodfood-Epping and Woodford- Hainault, trains then able to reverse at Leytonstone although arriving empty.

Not necessarily inconsistent - a broken rail will cause a track-circuit to fail (as the electric circuit formed by the rails is broken) and make the signals controlling the section go to red. Provided both halves of the broken rail are firmly secured to the trackbed a train can traverse the crack with caution - after passing the failed signal on the "stop & proceed" rules.