District line problems

[Nortube]

It's not been a good eight days for the District line, and WE have certainly been kept busy:

From twitter:
24 July
Signal failure Upney
Signal failure Upminster

25 July
Faulty Train at Ealing Common
Signal failure Ealing Broadway
Signal failure at Wimbledon Park
Faulty train at Wimbledon Park

26 July
Signal failure High St Kensington

28 July
Signal failure at Wimbledon Park
Signal failure at Wimbledon Park (after previous failure had been cleared)

29 July
Signal failure at Upney
Signal failure at Earls Court

30 July
Signal failure at Turnham Green

1st August
Today - according to twitter:
WE were fixing at signal failure at Dagenham East this morning
WE were fixing a signal failure at Earls Court this afternoon
WE were fixing a signal failure at Plaistow this afternoon
WE are fixing a signal failure at EdgwareRd (District cancelled H St Ken - EW Rd

The above are the problems mentioned on twitter over the past eight days where the service has been affected - delays / suspensions. There may be some omissions that aren't mentioned on twitter or where a "Good Service" has still been advertised.


Mile End this afternoon:
"Mile End station is currently closed due to a person on the track".
then
"Mile End station is currently open to the @hamandcityline & @districtline services only. Updates to follow"
then
"Mile End station is now open for @centralline @districtline @hamandcityline"

I realise that I'm probably missing something here, perhaps somebody can enlighten me.
I assume the person was on the Central line track as the Central line was suspended through Mile End.

I assume District line trains were running (there's no twitter mention of a suspension) I'm not too well up on the passenger access for Mile End, other than it's cross platform interchange at the same level between the Central and District line.

Whu close the station?. I can only assume that it's to stop the trespasser exiting the station or hopping on a District train if they are stopping as normal.

[Nortube]

Apparently there may also have been a SPAD later on at Turnham Green as well on the 30th.

[liverpoollou]

Aug 1, 2014 19:18:37 GMT Nortube said:

Apparently there may also have been a SPAD later on at Turnham Green as well on the 30th.

Very enlightening Thread Nortube no doubt a 'good service' was operating throughout.... corporate lies!

From what I understand the SPAD incident involved T515 which I believe is the special Steam train, hope this incident doesn't spoil the LU enthusiasm as the 150 celebrations were/are a really nice touch.

I have noticed the lack of anything about this on the DD site, wonder why

[Nortube]

Probably just testing the tripcock was working :-)

Running the heritage trains of whatever stock is a good thing and there should be more of them. Unfortunately, updrades to the signalling and, more importantly, the stupid dccision not to standardise the new signalling over the lines instead of it just being a hotchpotch of different types means that where the heritage trains can run is severely restricted.

Perhaps they should have a regular service every fourth Sunday between Olympia and Earls Court for some of the now disappeared electric stock, such as the 38 / 59 (did they keep one of those?) or C60 stock.

The heritage trips are good, but the cost of tickets means that most families are priced out (£310 for two adults and two children) on the forthcoming Moorgate steam run). If the prices rise much higher, they'll have to market the trips as a tourist attraction for rich foreign tourists, like they do the cable car!

[Nortube]

And the problems continue today (Sat 09:50)

according to twitter:
"Minor delays btn Earls Court to Tower Hill while we fix a signal failure at South Kensington. Good service rest of the line.
 10:10 pm - 1 Aug 2014"

TfL Status Update at 09:55
"Lines
Circle Part suspended
Severe delays

Circle Line: No service - Clockwise while we fix a signal failure at South Kensington. SEVERE DELAYS - Anti-clockwise London Buses accepting valid London Underground tickets via any reasonable route. Replan your journey Close status
District Severe delays

District Line: Severe delays while we fix a signal failure at South Kensington"


Although the age of the twitter post is shown as 3 hours ago, the twitter post time is shown as yesterday at 10:10pm, with the last twiter post shown as 10:56 pm and no posts for today.  Assuming that the twitter date / clock is correct, this means that the failure has been on-going since last night as Transportdirect.info reports Circle suspended Clockwise at 06:06 this morning and severe disruption on the District at 06:12, which is around start of traffic for that area.

[Nortube]

A little bird tells me that the steam train did indeed SPAD at Turnham Green in the evening, on the way to Moorgate. As there were no delays mentioned on twitter, I assume that the WB District line had either stopped running by then, or were diverted along the Piccadilly line.

Apparently, there was a sizeable overrun and rumours are around that it was actually an aggravated SPAD with some confusion as to what was happening. All very embarrassing as there are no doubt a few big-wigs on these sort of trips, plus the various other grades of staff that may be necessary.

However, these things happen, for whatever reason. Perhaps the signal should be fitted with a repeater or switched on fog repeater. No doubt the view / signal sighting from the footplate of a steam train is rather different to that seen from the trains that normally run along the track there and perhaps the view of the signal(s) was obscured.

I assume that it wasn't a District line driver driving, and so the steam train driver wouldn't know the route or be familiar with the signals. A pilotman (somebody who does know the route well, such as a driver on that line) is normally provided to assist any driver who doesn't know the road and they will point out any specifics, such as line gradient, difficult to see signals, speed restrictions etc. and, presumably, be another pair of eyes.

These days, when there is a SPAD, the driver is normally D&A tested to make sure that the SPAD wasn't because the driver was under the influence. This may also apply to others that are involved, such as if there is a trainee in the cab etc. I assume that the D&A procedure was also carried out in this case, although I don't know who would actually be tested, but I've no doubt they passed with flying colours

(On the railways, D&A limits are much tougher than for drink-driving (are motorists actually tested for drugs?) and, apart from being tested if involved in an incident, staff are also randomly D&A tested without warning. Those that fail a D&A are usually sacked. This is a much different attitude to the days prior the Kings Cross fire, when it was often the norm for a train crew to pop over the pub for a swift pint during their meal break and, if found rather tipsy, normally just given a ticking off!)