SSR Resignalling

Or just do what they do at Parson Green, where they are just listed as “District Line”, with no destination…

ATC boundary is currently Fulham Broadway so Parsons Green still in 'legacy' area. ATC extension to East Putney still some time in the future.

Great news, I was wondering when this would start as it had gone quiet on news on this topic. 
Does this mean the DMI will now show the destinations? rather than, check front of the train? and at East Ham will it show a string of Westbound trains rather then when it gets to Barking? and also will the DMI/Audo play at stations such as Bow Rd and Bromley By Bow and other stations that have that software that can say " District Line, the next train to Upminister will arrive in 2 mins" "District Line, the train now approaching is to Ealing Broadway, please stand back from the platform edge" as when Whitechapel got SMA, the same day the DMI Audio kicked in. 

Within the SMA 6 area (Stepney Green - Becontree), only Mile End, Bow Road, Bromley-by-Bow and Plaistow have the capability to broadcast 'Next Train' announcements. However it is worth noting that even after CBTC commissioning, these announcements can be suppressed due to local factors.

While I haven't seen the timetable I understood the plan to be different - no service on the entire line until 1000, then no service East of Whitechapel until 1200.
After 1200, 'suspended' Stepney Green to Becontree with trains running empty through that area until the decision is made to open up for passenger service.

Why the need to suspend the whole line for the first part of Saturday 14th January 2023 ?

<<Posts moved from District line - goldenarrow>>

Am I right in thinking that the new signalling allowing ATO to Upminster goes live this weekend?

Hows it all going? ready to open at 2pm? is it closed all day tomorrow?

Once trains eventually start running, there needs to be a period of time where confidence is gained that the system is stable.

Once that confidence is gained the decision will be made to open stations and trains put into service. Nobody knows when that will be. It could be sometime later today (Saturday) or it could be sometime tomorrow (Sunday).

If there's no confidence at all "they" could even decide to revert back to the old legacy signalling system ready for Monday morning.

You'll just have to "watch this space" I'm afraid.....

As one of the aforementioned "they", the view from the Control Centre earlier this evening was that the service had recovered from the earlier disruption and was now running well with the usual minor teething problems which are being recorded and fed back to Thales as is always the case after a new section of CBTC has been commissioned.

This morning's issues were related to how two adjacent VCCs talk to each other and pass trains across the boundaries. What was thought to be a one-off at Euston Square took a while to investigate (in fact, investigations into the system logs are still ongoing) and there was a concern that it might not be a one-off and that the same thing might appear on the boundary between SMA3 and SMA6 at Stepney Green, which it then did, but until a train arrives it's very hard to detect, so you can only deal with the problem as and when it arises.
Fortunately, the technical staff on duty were aware of the potential and were able to resolve the issue much faster than when it first appeared. It will continue to be looked at in the coming days.

I expect there will not be a decision to open stations until at least tomorrow lunchtime, but I could be wrong!

As for the final comment from david123, whilst I don't want to disparage the vox populi of the Train Operators at Tower Hill, but it is my experience that sometimes T/Ops have little comprehension of the world beyond their immediate role, and I wouldn't consider their opinions to be worth much in the debate about whether or not we decide to open up for service or to revert to the legacy system.

I don't think I'll ever understand this fascination with speed.

You won't see 62mph anywhere at the moment as there's currently a 56mph cap in place whilst a recently identified issue is resolved. In any case I would have thought it's relatively obvious that you'll only see such a high speed on a relatively straightforward piece of track, timetable and sufficient gaps between trains permitting, where there's a decent run between stations.

Within the context of the SSR resignalling project, a speed increase between two given stations won't on its own improve the overall journey time. There are other factors which contribute to the overall journey time.

For example the timetable needs to be tightened up otherwise a train will simply arrive at a given point early and just spend longer sitting there until it's timetabled departure time is reached.

As much as there are undoubtedly speed increases in the new SMA6 area, there are also decreases. For example trains now depart East Ham on the eastbound at 12mph rather than accelerating straightaway up to full line speed (as they did under legacy signalling). I gather this has something to do with the tripcock tester and avoiding a rear tripping situation. The same applies at Earls Court which is why trains are slower through there under CBTC too. I don't know the technicalities of this - its just what I've been told by those that do know.

Platform dwell times are another factor. Overall we're probably seeing no difference compared to the older legacy area but under CBTC it does take longer to gain the ability to open the passenger doors. The CBTC system does however encourage drivers to close the doors a little quicker than they would have done under the older legacy system by way of presenting a countdown timer and a ready to depart tone in the cab hence the overall balancing out. Mind you, we are quieter than pre-Covid times. It's entirely possible that if we were as busy as we were pre-Covid, dwell times might be increased due to the delay opening the doors.

Thinking as I type.......realistically how many sections are trains going to do 56mph (assuming the line is clear enough to permit it)? Those sections were previously 45mph so it's only 11mph more, and that's only at the top end once a train builds up enough velocity. Then the faster they go they earlier they'll need to brake. I just can't see it making a big impact overall to any journey, hence my cynicism.

And to add more weight to my cynicism, despite taking three minutes out between Earls Court and Tower Hill at the last timetable change (the success of which is questionable as trains run late more often now), the overall journey time end to end on the District is currently exactly the same as it was 19 years ago when I became a driver! Worse still, it was 10 minutes less off peak back in the 1980's.

Trains are now operating in passenger service in the new SMA6 area (Stepney Green to Becontree).

Do Circle & Hammersmith drivers still operate the Wimbelware services? Or did that practice die out with the C Stock?

Still it's very cool to see the completion of the 4LM project on two out of four lines. Good work to all those involved!