http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10964766

A driverless train ran for almost four miles on the London Underground
on Friday morning.

The engineering train on the Northern line was allowed to roll between
Archway and Warren Street stations, TfL has confirmed.

The incident, which happened at 0640 BST, is now being investigated by
London Underground.

Transport for London (TfL) said the train moved at slow speed with no
risk to the safety of passengers or staff.

A TfL spokesperson said: "A full investigation has been launched into
this incident."


So this is why the Northern Line was, and is still suspended. It was
described as "late finish to overnight engineering work"

In message
, at
03:23:43 on Fri, 13 Aug 2010, Paul remarked:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10964766

A driverless train ran for almost four miles on the London Underground
on Friday morning.

The engineering train on the Northern line was allowed to roll between
Archway and Warren Street stations, TfL has confirmed.

Cripes, so it rolled through Mornington Crescent!

I saw a rather different odd thing last time I was in Paris ... an
engineering train proceeding wrong-track through the opposite platform
to the one I was on (at about 8am). I crossed my fingers that my train
would not be delayed, and wondered what happened next. Presumably it
crossed over to the tracks my side and made its escape. Funny thing was,
trains were supposed to be passing on both tracks about every three
minutes.
--
Roland Perry

On Aug 13, 11:23*am, Paul wrote:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10964766

A driverless train ran for almost four miles on the London Underground
on Friday morning.

The engineering train on the Northern line was allowed to roll between
Archway and Warren Street stations, TfL has confirmed.

The incident, which happened at 0640 BST, is now being investigated by
London Underground.

Transport for London (TfL) said the train moved at slow speed with no
risk to the safety of passengers or staff.

A TfL spokesperson said: "A full investigation has been launched into
this incident."

----------

So this is why the Northern Line was, and is still suspended. *It was
described as "late finish to overnight engineering work"

Sounds like a serious screw up, thankfully no-one got hurt. RAIB will
of course be involved.

The fact it happened at 0640 suggests that there were already serious
problems with engineering work overrunning - the first southbound
train from Highgate is (or should be) at 0536 - a whole hour earlier -
whilst the first northbound train is at 0602. That is, of course, if
the report of the incident happening at 0640 is reliable. Also, I
suppose it's possible that the works train could have been running
amongst normal traffic.

The current situation is interesting - two sections of the line are
closed, but a section through which the runaway train ran is open.

Current situation (from TfL website live travel news) as at 11:55:
---quote---
* Northern line
Suspended between Finchley Central and Archway and between Camden Town
and Kennington via Charing Cross and minor delays on the rest of the
line due to the late finish to engineering at Highgate.

Tickets will be accepted on local buses and First Capital Connect
trains.
---/quote---

I guess the investigators are looking at the location where it rolled
away - so one of the platforms at Archway or maybe somewhere north
thereof, but the other platform is being used to reverse the trains
that are running to and from points south - and also, presumably, the
investigators are also looking at where the train came to a halt at
Warren Street, and the train is quite possibly still there I suppose,
anyhow this then blocks off using the CX branch.

On 13 Aug, 12:00, Mizter T wrote:
On Aug 13, 11:23*am, Paul wrote:





http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10964766

A driverless train ran for almost four miles on the London Underground
on Friday morning.

The engineering train on the Northern line was allowed to roll between
Archway and Warren Street stations, TfL has confirmed.

The incident, which happened at 0640 BST, is now being investigated by
London Underground.

Transport for London (TfL) said the train moved at slow speed with no
risk to the safety of passengers or staff.

A TfL spokesperson said: "A full investigation has been launched into
this incident."

----------

So this is why the Northern Line was, and is still suspended. *It was
described as "late finish to overnight engineering work"

Sounds like a serious screw up, thankfully no-one got hurt. RAIB will
of course be involved.

The fact it happened at 0640 suggests that there were already serious
problems with engineering work overrunning - the first southbound
train from Highgate is (or should be) at 0536 - a whole hour earlier -
whilst the first northbound train is at 0602. That is, of course, if
the report of the incident happening at 0640 is reliable. Also, I
suppose it's possible that the works train could have been running
amongst normal traffic.

The current situation is interesting - two sections of the line are
closed, but a section through which the runaway train ran is open.

Current situation (from TfL website live travel news) as at 11:55:
---quote---
* Northern line
Suspended between Finchley Central and Archway and between Camden Town
and Kennington via Charing Cross and minor delays on the rest of the
line due to the late finish to engineering at Highgate.

Tickets will be accepted on local buses and First Capital Connect
trains.
---/quote---

I guess the investigators are looking at the location where it rolled
away - so one of the platforms at Archway or maybe somewhere north
thereof, but the other platform is being used to reverse the trains
that are running to and from points south - and also, presumably, the
investigators are also looking at where the train came to a halt at
Warren Street, and the train is quite possibly still there I suppose,
anyhow this then blocks off using the CX branch.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I was saying on UK Railway that everything was running via Bank to
Edgware, with overrunning engineering work mentioned in announcements.

Nothing was running to Archway, certainly not at 0820 or so, and
punters were advised that it was not known when anything would, and to
get a bus from Camden Town. This was in contradiction to recorded
announcements about being suspended between Finchley and Archway.

The sections closed were presumably where the work overran and where
the train ended up. I did assume that maybe the works overran because
the train had run away, but maybe there were other problems. This
extra information about the timings (if correct) would suggest that
there were.

The latest information from the BBC* is that the engineers' train broked
down near Archway while travelling south at 0525, so it looks as if this
breakdown may have been the original cause of the engineering works
overrun. The report says that an out-of-service Northern Line train was
coupled to it and was towing it northbound when the coupling failed.
The engineers' train then ran down the hill southbound.

"LU staff took the decision to divert passenger trains to the City
branch while directing the engineering train to the cleared Charing
Cross branch. The engineering train came to a halt at Warren Street in
central London at 0657 BST because the station is at the bottom of an
incline."

The RMT are claiming that a collision with a passenger train was only
narrowly avoided, but since they are reported as saying that this was at
Archway, it seems unlikely.

I assume that the tripcock arms would have been raised to enable it to
be towed northbound on the southbound track, and hence weren't available
to stop the train when it broke free. The RAIB report will make
interesting reading!

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10964766

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

In message
, at
06:26:47 on Fri, 13 Aug 2010, MIG
remarked:
I did assume that maybe the works overran because
the train had run away, but maybe there were other problems.

Perhaps they over-ran because the train broke down, which was why it was
being towed away...
--
Roland Perry

Richard J. wrote on 13 August 2010
15:04:21 ...
The latest information from the BBC* is that the engineers' train broke
down near Archway while travelling south at 0525, so it looks as if this
breakdown may have been the original cause of the engineering works
overrun. The report says that an out-of-service Northern Line train was
coupled to it and was towing it northbound when the coupling failed.
The engineers' train then ran down the hill southbound.

"LU staff took the decision to divert passenger trains to the City
branch while directing the engineering train to the cleared Charing
Cross branch. The engineering train came to a halt at Warren Street in
central London at 0657 BST because the station is at the bottom of an
incline."

The RMT are claiming that a collision with a passenger train was only
narrowly avoided, but since they are reported as saying that this was at
Archway, it seems unlikely.

I assume that the tripcock arms would have been raised to enable it to
be towed northbound on the southbound track, and hence weren't available
to stop the train when it broke free. The RAIB report will make
interesting reading!

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10964766

Further thoughts (apart from correcting 'broked' to 'broke' in the first
line above):

What sort of connections do you have for the emergency coupling of 95ts
with, presumably, a battery loco? Is there a brake connection? If so,
why weren't the brakes automatically applied on the runaway train? And
if there's no brake connection, shouldn't there have been someone on the
dead train ready to apply emergency brakes if the coupling failed, like
the guard in his van at the rear of an old-fashioned unbraked freight
train?
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

On Aug 13, 3:09*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
, at
06:26:47 on Fri, 13 Aug 2010, MIG
remarked:

I did assume that maybe the works overran because
the train had run away, but maybe there were other problems.

Perhaps they over-ran because the train broke down, which was why it was
being towed away...

The broken down train and tow-away elements of this story are new i.e.
the BBC story has been updated - which is why earlier comments made by
MIG and myself now seem as though we never read the story (because at
the time of posting we hadn't read those parts of the story coz they
weren't there).

In message
, at
07:28:21 on Fri, 13 Aug 2010, Mizter T remarked:
I did assume that maybe the works overran because
the train had run away, but maybe there were other problems.

Perhaps they over-ran because the train broke down, which was why it was
being towed away...

The broken down train and tow-away elements of this story are new i.e.
the BBC story has been updated - which is why earlier comments made by
MIG and myself now seem as though we never read the story (because at
the time of posting we hadn't read those parts of the story coz they
weren't there).

Those elements were there originally iirc. What's fundamentally changed
(I think) is that originally it said that the broken down train chased
the towing train, which would have meant it was being towed southwards
not northwards - which had it been true, might have explained the lack
of collision because the towing train would be clearing the track ahead.
--
Roland Perry

In article ,
Roland Perry wrote:


Cripes, so it rolled through Mornington Crescent!


I've just driven past MC - there were three emergency vehicles including
two fire trucks parked outside.

E.