I'm regularly seeing tweets from the Piccadilly Line that say that there's
a shortage of available trains. Is this some newly discovered technical
problem, or the result of union action? This fleet is regularly reported
as LU's most reliable.

Here's an example from this morning: "Apologies for the gaps in the
service, this is due to lack of available trains. Our staff are working
hard to resolve this issue."

The gaps in service are causing overcrowding at busy stations, leading to
tweets like this, "Kings Cross station - Closed to prevent overcrowding.
Update to follow."

It's not just today -- it seems to be happening regularly.

These 40+ year old trains are expected to soldier on for the best part of a
decade before the NTfLs replace them, so I hope the problem is temporary.

In message
-septe
mber.org, at 10:16:47 on Wed, 23 Nov 2016, Recliner
remarked:
I'm regularly seeing tweets from the Piccadilly Line that say that there's
a shortage of available trains. Is this some newly discovered technical
problem, or the result of union action? This fleet is regularly reported
as LU's most reliable.

Here's an example from this morning: "Apologies for the gaps in the
service, this is due to lack of available trains. Our staff are working
hard to resolve this issue."

Could be leaf-fall wheel flats. A lot of the Piccadilly line is in the
open air.

The gaps in service are causing overcrowding at busy stations, leading to
tweets like this, "Kings Cross station - Closed to prevent overcrowding.
Update to follow."

It's not just today -- it seems to be happening regularly.

These 40+ year old trains are expected to soldier on for the best part of a
decade before the NTfLs replace them, so I hope the problem is temporary.

--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-septe
mber.org, at 10:16:47 on Wed, 23 Nov 2016, Recliner
remarked:
I'm regularly seeing tweets from the Piccadilly Line that say that there's
a shortage of available trains. Is this some newly discovered technical
problem, or the result of union action? This fleet is regularly reported
as LU's most reliable.

Here's an example from this morning: "Apologies for the gaps in the
service, this is due to lack of available trains. Our staff are working
hard to resolve this issue."

Could be leaf-fall wheel flats. A lot of the Piccadilly line is in the
open air.

Sounds plausible. The week-old problem is continuing today, but they're not
identifying any specific problem(s) on Twitter:

"hi, we don't have the specific reason but they are working hard to get any
unavailable trains back in service as soon as possible"

Incidentally, although the Piccadilly line is largely above ground from
Baron's Court, it's largely on viaducts rather than cuttings, so it
shouldn't be affected very much by leaf fall.

In message
-septe
mber.org, at 10:06:07 on Thu, 24 Nov 2016, Recliner
remarked:

Incidentally, although the Piccadilly line is largely above ground from
Baron's Court, it's largely on viaducts rather than cuttings, so it
shouldn't be affected very much by leaf fall.

And the branch to Uxbridge, and the part in North London?
--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-septe
mber.org, at 10:06:07 on Thu, 24 Nov 2016, Recliner
remarked:

Incidentally, although the Piccadilly line is largely above ground from
Baron's Court, it's largely on viaducts rather than cuttings, so it
shouldn't be affected very much by leaf fall.

And the branch to Uxbridge, and the part in North London?

Very little of the eastern end is not underground.

The Acton Town to Rayner's Lane section is on viaducts from Park Royal most
of the way to Sudbury Town, where it's at ground level. It's then in a
shallow cutting till after Sudbury Hill, after which it's back on viaducts
to Rayner's Lane. It's then a mixture, but I can't think of any deep
cuttings on the rest of the route to Uxbridge. Remember that all of these
lines were built by the Met and District lines, rather than Tube railway
companies, and they preferred to build on or above ground level in the then
largely rural areas.

On Thu, 24 Nov 2016 11:43:36 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
Roland Perry wrote:
In message
-septe
mber.org, at 10:06:07 on Thu, 24 Nov 2016, Recliner
remarked:

Incidentally, although the Piccadilly line is largely above ground from
Baron's Court, it's largely on viaducts rather than cuttings, so it
shouldn't be affected very much by leaf fall.

And the branch to Uxbridge, and the part in North London?

Very little of the eastern end is not underground.

The Acton Town to Rayner's Lane section is on viaducts from Park Royal most
of the way to Sudbury Town, where it's at ground level. It's then in a
shallow cutting till after Sudbury Hill, after which it's back on viaducts
to Rayner's Lane. It's then a mixture, but I can't think of any deep
cuttings on the rest of the route to Uxbridge. Remember that all of these
lines were built by the Met and District lines, rather than Tube railway
companies, and they preferred to build on or above ground level in the then
largely rural areas.

Given the service level of the piccadilly line on the uxbridge branch when I
occasionally used it while working in ealing a few years back, I suspect most
leaves on the line have a fairly undisturbed quiet life.

--
Spud

On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 11:57:39 +0000, Roland Perry
wrote:

In message
-septe
mber.org, at 10:16:47 on Wed, 23 Nov 2016, Recliner
remarked:
I'm regularly seeing tweets from the Piccadilly Line that say that there's
a shortage of available trains. Is this some newly discovered technical
problem, or the result of union action? This fleet is regularly reported
as LU's most reliable.

Here's an example from this morning: "Apologies for the gaps in the
service, this is due to lack of available trains. Our staff are working
hard to resolve this issue."

Could be leaf-fall wheel flats. A lot of the Piccadilly line is in the
open air.

Yes, you were right. But I wonder why it's worse this year than
previous years? I used to commute on that line every day, and don't
remember anything like this.

On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 10:16:47 -0000 (UTC), Recliner
wrote:

I'm regularly seeing tweets from the Piccadilly Line that say that there's
a shortage of available trains. Is this some newly discovered technical
problem, or the result of union action? This fleet is regularly reported
as LU's most reliable.

Here's an example from this morning: "Apologies for the gaps in the
service, this is due to lack of available trains. Our staff are working
hard to resolve this issue."

The gaps in service are causing overcrowding at busy stations, leading to
tweets like this, "Kings Cross station - Closed to prevent overcrowding.
Update to follow."

It's not just today -- it seems to be happening regularly.

These 40+ year old trains are expected to soldier on for the best part of a
decade before the NTfLs replace them, so I hope the problem is temporary.

The fly-on-the-wall series on the Tube a while back made much of the
73s being LUL's oldest stock, and how difficult it was keeping it in
service. One of the programmes was partly based around the fact that
there were, I think, 17 trains (units?) out of service due to failts
that day.

BirchangerKen wrote:
On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 10:16:47 -0000 (UTC), Recliner
wrote:

I'm regularly seeing tweets from the Piccadilly Line that say that there's
a shortage of available trains. Is this some newly discovered technical
problem, or the result of union action? This fleet is regularly reported
as LU's most reliable.

Here's an example from this morning: "Apologies for the gaps in the
service, this is due to lack of available trains. Our staff are working
hard to resolve this issue."

The gaps in service are causing overcrowding at busy stations, leading to
tweets like this, "Kings Cross station - Closed to prevent overcrowding.
Update to follow."

It's not just today -- it seems to be happening regularly.

These 40+ year old trains are expected to soldier on for the best part of a
decade before the NTfLs replace them, so I hope the problem is temporary.

The fly-on-the-wall series on the Tube a while back made much of the
73s being LUL's oldest stock, and how difficult it was keeping it in
service. One of the programmes was partly based around the fact that
there were, I think, 17 trains (units?) out of service due to failts
that day.

It's not the oldest LU stock -- the 72 stock is three years older, and in
worse condition. I think Roland's suggestion of wheel flats in this leaf
fall season sounds the most likely explanation.

On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 21:34:51 +0000
BirchangerKen wrote:
On Wed, 23 Nov 2016 10:16:47 -0000 (UTC), Recliner
wrote:
These 40+ year old trains are expected to soldier on for the best part of a
decade before the NTfLs replace them, so I hope the problem is temporary.

The fly-on-the-wall series on the Tube a while back made much of the
73s being LUL's oldest stock, and how difficult it was keeping it in
service. One of the programmes was partly based around the fact that
there were, I think, 17 trains (units?) out of service due to failts
that day.

I'm fairly sure I remember as a kid , if there was a door fault on a car the
driver would get everyone out of it then somehow disable the doors on that
car only so no one could get in except via the gangway doors (which most
wouldn't do because then they couldn't get off in time if it was in the rush
hour). Now if theres any fault on a door anywhere on a train they take the
entire train out of service.

--
Spud