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Peter Campbell Smith[_2_] · April 25th 08, 10:46 AM posted to uk.transport.london,uk.railway

Mizter T wrote in news:216b282d-5d89-46e3-8f57-
:

I suspect the argument is that ATO works best on a straightforward
'linear line' (as it were!) rather than one which has branches and
hence junctions, especially where those junctions for the branches are
at the heart of the line (Northern line at Camden) rather than at the
periphery (Central line).

I worked on the software for BART, the San Francisco area metro. It is
fully automated, and has several points at which lines merge and split,
notably to get through the tunnel under the bay.

In practice the ATO and associated interlocking and routing logic do
this pretty well. It copes with trains out of sequence, wrong-line
running, a stretch of reversible track (used inbound in the morning and
outbound in the evening) and so on. The control room can override the
automated decisions, but my recollection is that they rarely see the
need to do so.

Peter

PS. BART route map he
http://sfo.web.infoseek.co.jp/citymap/citymap13.html. The tunnel is
between Embarcadero and West Oakland. There is a triangular junction
just west of West Oakland, and the 3-track section runs from there up to
MacArthur. More or less all the rest is 2-track, ie the parallel routes
shown are sharing track (like LU Circle and District Lines).

--
Peter Campbell Smith ~ London ~ pjcs00 (a) gmail.com