LU goes into wristbands!

Does this imply that professionalism doesn't precent SPADs on other lines?
Or are the other lines just generally more professional that the Picc?

Chris

Why?

How does it do that?


Understood and accepted.



Absolutely right, and I'm not trying to say otherwise. I'm merely curious to find out why you think they're a good idea. In what way will they help people to improve their driving, how will they be of practical benefit?

So, does this mean that drivers with latex allergies will be overrepresented in Piccadilly SPADs?

But why should these bands be given priority over things that would actually make things run better?

If they must have wristbands, buy an economy bulk pack of rubber bands from Staples.

It will not physically stop drivers hitting sticks, the only physical thing that will stop train operators hitting signals is consentration.

The wristbands as I have already said, can show you immediately what the persons view is in regards to SPADs, as everyone doesnt sing from the same hymn book.



Yes I should hope they are, however everyone thinks differently and has different ideas about things, which can clearly be seen from how this thread has progessed on. However everyone is entiled to a view, whether they put it into practise is something totally different

Yes MA. Concentration, absolutely right, perhaps the wristband should be better worded !

The thing is though PP, is that most of the time, SPADs are not because of the sighting time of signals, it is lack of consentration of the Train Operator

And that means??

I don't understand how they will do that.
Bear in mind that I am not a train driver, and never have been. I've also never worked with train drivers, or for LU in any capacity. However, if I were a train driver, I would be absolutely committed to not SPADing - regardless of any reasons of job security, but common sense. A signal is at Danger for a reason - passing it is dangerous. Even if I were an adreneline (sp?) junkie (which I'm not), getting my kicks while driving a train is NOT apropriate or sensible.

Now, assuming I were a driver on the Pic, I highly doubt that I would be wearing a wristband for the simple reason I don't like wrist bands. The only thing I can stand on my wrist is my watch, and then it has to be tight (so it doesn't move around) and in the right place. Sometimes I will even take that off because it is annoying me. If I did wear it, it wouldn't be long before I took it off. Knowing me, it wouldn't be five minutes after I took it off that I lost it.

From what I understand your post to mean, you would be able to see at a glance who is comited to reducing SPADs. There will be people like me, who are committed and don't wear the wrist band, indeed as someone said earlier, there will be people who can't wear the wrist band - are they automatically not committed to reducing SPADs? What about the people who couldn't care less about SPADing, the chances are they couldn't care less about wearing a wrist band that says they are concerned about them, and will wear them because its politic to do so?

I honestly don't think it will tell you anything about the person's views, other than they don't have a latex allergy and don't mind wearing a writstband that says "Proffesionalism preverts Picadilly SPADs".

If there is a problem with SPADs, then you need to try and understand why they are occuring. There have been two possibilities posted on this thead - signal siting and driver concentration. AFAIU on the mainline, each signal has a SPAD tally that shows how many times it has been passed at danger. If the tally reaches a certain number in a certian time (3 in 5 years?) then it is automatically investigated whether there is a pattern in the SPADs - e.g. do they all occur on sunny mornings in February? If a pattern is found, then action is taken to find out why that pattern exists (e.g. the sunlight drowns out the signal) and to do something about it (e.g. erect a sunshade that blocks the sun from the angle its at on sunny mornings in February).
If the problem is with signal sitedness, then this is the sort of thing I would expect - a small number of singals being passed a relatively high number of times. (e.g. 10 SPADs occurred at 3 signals).

If driver concentration is the problem then I would expect that a larger number of signals are being passed a fewer number of times each (e.g. 10 SPADs occurred at 9 signals). In this case you need to establish why the drivers aren't concentrating (see also the Boredom thread on this forum) and try and address this issue. Perhaps there are sections that are particularly mind numbning or are very similar so that drivers get confused. Maybe the solution to this is to do something to make the stretches of tunnel look/feel different. Perhaps lay coloured strips in the four foot, different for different sections. Or maybe the drivers cab should have a last station and next station id - perhaps broadcastable via the CDSE equipment or near to it.
Or possibly require the driver to perfom some action at random intervals, maybe push a green button when they hear a bell or a blue button when they hear a buzzer.
Alternatively, perhaps more frequent, shorter breaks are a possibility?

Chris

So we've jumped on the old wear an elastic band band-wagon have we. Not a sign that you support policies aimed at reducing poverty. Oh no, this goes one better. That you are committed to not passing a signal at danger.

If anyone came near me with a similar elastic band aimed at preventing wrong signals, I would either use it to strap their genitals to a high voltage cable, or wrap it around the computer desk and see if it can do any better.

What a pathetic waste of everyone's time and money. They are not a good idea, I don't care how you dress it up. There are many more sensible ways of tackling problems.

The only time they could be unsafe is if there is a comprimised overlap, or if there was nothing to stop a train if it was to go past a signal at danger.

Under "normal" conditions, a SPAD is not dangerous, as the train will be stopped.

Iam not implying that at all. However iam not saying that you should have a SPAD as a red signal is telling to to stop, because theren is a train in the section ahead.

If you are travelling at or below normal line speed, and there is no defect on the train, and you go past a signal at danger, you should be stopped within the overlap. If you comprimise the overlap, by travelling at a speed higher than the line speed for the particular section, then hit a signal, you will not be stopped within the overlap, this is when it becomes dangerous.

If a driver accpets a wrong route, this is classed as a SPAD, however it isnt dangerous is it ?

There is a differwnce between dangerous and acceptable, a SPAD isnt acceptable, however they are not always dangerous.

Correct. When I started the District campaign to reclaim the South Harrow branch I was merely interviewed by a DMT and told, I must pay more attention to signals in future, I even got to go home as a reward as the spare finished my turn.