Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

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tractakid
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by tractakid »

I hope you have great success tomorrow Nigel!
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by geofftech »

I saw NIgel on the Oympia train around 11.45 this morning. The Met had already broken early on up to Watford, the Central has a broken down train at Shepherd's Bush, likewise on the Circle at NHG - failed train, and i've just been told the District has died at Wimbledon. The District was playing up all day actually, as we saw Richmond trains out of place, lots of 'C' stock running out of service, and the Olympia exhbition service was all out of time. Nigel's train left 14 minute from HSK to Olympia, and up until that point he had somehow managed to be on schedule. My betting is he'll complete somewhere between 17 and a half & 18 hours.

It was 28C out there today, too!

The tube is NOT going to hold up during the Olympics, it's going to be dreadful ...
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by perkyperky »

I arrived at Paddington NR yesterday at 0541, needing to catch H&C to Kings X St Pancras. Ist train terminated at Edgware Road, spoke to station staff; they had no idea why either(they said "that never happens!"). Next train to arrive broke down. Not connected to this thread, but I agree with Geoff re reliability. It simply isn't reliable at the mo.
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by geofftech »

...

Last edited by geofftech on 07 May 2019, 10:19, edited 1 time in total.
hopeful traveller
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by hopeful traveller »

Erm... have you seen the stats? Dec 2011 had the least delays since 2003...
1 FNC Completion (PB: 17:18:18 with G Bryant, A Chilcraft, I MacNaughton)
4 Zone Ones (PB: 03:00:35 with G Bryant)
15 R15s (PB: 01:55:48 with T Cooling and R Jackson)
11 All Lines (PB: 00:44:03)
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by tubeguru »

hopeful traveller wrote:Erm... have you seen the stats? Dec 2011 had the least delays since 2003...
The FEWEST delays.
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kateyay
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by kateyay »

I think there may be a little difference between how individuals see the service - and what the "service Level" is!
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by tractakid »

Congrats Nigel on a completion in a very respectable time!
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by perkyperky »

I think what happened to me probably showed up as no delays, using tfl criteria.
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by geofftech »

hopeful traveller wrote:Erm... have you seen the stats? Dec 2011 had the least delays since 2003...
For goodness sake. When will you realise, when?

There is a distinct difference between what LU/TfL communicate to its 'customers' and what is happening out there in real time on the network. e.g. yesterday:

- Points at Moor Park broke. they switched to a special timetable on the Met, diverted trains at Rickmansworth on the North Curve to Watford, etc.. there wasn't the normal "one in, one out" pattern at Watford, instead it was the same train in and out in the morning. Huge mess. But becaues LU run some sort of regular service, they are able to lie to us and say that it is a 'Good Service' when it is not.

- Olympia exhib trains were leaving 15 minutes of out sync. We saw a H&C train cancelled with no explanation. We saw two C stock trains running out of service instead of IN service (why, LU.. why?), out train out of Edgware Road was late (we should have never have caught it), and the trains were out of sync at Richmond. i.e. something was very wrong with the District/Circle/H&C line, but because they were running some sort of regular service, they were able to say 'Good Service' all the time, when this is in fact a lie.

- At Shepherd's Bush, a Central Line train broke down. The doors wouldn't clear when closed, despite there being nothing stuck. The train sat their for 12 minutes, not moving backing up all out westbound Central line trains behind it. This is clearly not good, yet despite this we were subject to continual and patronising PA announcement of 'There is a Good Service running..' throughout as was sat on the platform in disgust watching the network fall apart again.

What LU/TfL tell you, is NOT the same as what it really happening. A Good Service is one where it all runs, nothing goes wrong, there are no break downs or faults because maintenance work is done properly with enough trained staff to make it work, where there are enough drivers to cover shifts, and where investment work on the network to improve track & signalling means that it actually holds up instead of failing all the time.

They are telling us continually they "they are improving the tube", but my real-life, real-time experience in the last few years show anything but, and I am sick of it.

--

incidentaly, congrats to Nigel for finishing in seventeen and half hours. we were between 45-60 minutes down when we called it a day. if we had bravely batted on (for no record) and assuming we hit no more delays (unlikely) that i think we could have come in between 17 and 17 and a half hours too. But on paper, our route was a 16 hour - something ...
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by moley »

We actually couldn’t complete (would have missed T4) and would have got caught by not just the broken District/circle later in the day but also the out-flow from Wimbledon.

For me yesterday was the most frustrating of the 13 attempts that I’ve been involved in. Because TfL keep saying “Good Service” when I personally witnessed 3 different 15 minute delays to the service.
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by Nigel »

I'm back home now - so I can share an account of my day. For those who don't know from Twitter I completed in a time of 17h 23ms 36s, which ranks as the second fastest of my three completions.

This was only ever going to be an attempt at completion, not for a fast time, and in the end I think it was the most enjoyable of my 5 attempts. In comparison, to my other two completions, when everything started unravelling in the last few hours, this time luck was with me in the last few hours, so actually managed to gain time towards the end. (The final bonus was picking up a late running Terminal 4 train, which I wouldn't have caught if it had been on time, which consequently only stopped at T4 for 3 minutes rather than the usual 7 or 8 minutes.) On my second completion I lost about 40 minutes from being on a sub-record time until late evening which was galling, and on my first as well as battling the trains I was also fighting my unruly bowels (not a problem this time).

I was determined to try to enjoy the day, as with the Olympia changes and my advancing years, this may be my last ever full network. By starting on the first train of the day, in the first few changes you lose about 25 minutes compared to the best possible combination. Also, I was lazily using my tried and tested plan from last year, which now loses further time with some not so slick connections later on.

If evidence was needed that TfL are not serious about the Olympia Exhibition Service then it was provided at Earl's Court yesterday. There was supposed to be a train to Olympia at 44 & 14 minutes past the hour, not that there was any information about that at Earl's Court - in fact all the signs suggested that you get there by Overground from West Brompton, no posters to say that an Exhibition service running today. I was pleased that I had managed to tee up a perfect connection by catching a train due in at 43, which in fact arrived two minutes early. Except that there was no Olympia service at 44, or for the next 15 minutes. I was just about to give up, when the arrow came up showing an Olympia train, which left at 59, exactly 15 minutes late. (I was surprised to find Geoff on it as well.) In my plan, I have four different ways (and times of day) for doing Olympia; which I choose depends on how timings are up until then. Each of these options is supposed to tee up favourable connections for one of the other two of the difficult three (i.e. Loop or MHE). So being committed to taking the Olympia train 15 minutes late also messed up these.

I was lucky that I managed to avoid most of the serious problems on the Met, Victoria, District and Circle reported at various times. That said, the Circle did me no favours when it was still supposed running a good service - one timetabled train simply did not run, and another crawled along so slowly it managed to lose about 6 minutes in the short time I was on it.

I had a bit of a scare when choosing how to do the Loop. It looked like I was aiming for a particular Loop train from Leytonstone round to Woodford, when at the last minute I managed to catch a late running connection I wasn't expecting to. So I now calculated that I was marginally better off going up to Epping, and catching the Loop on the way back at Woodford. But the Epping train crawled all the way up to Epping arriving about 5 minutes late, missing the return train I was expecting. This in itself shouldn't have been a major problem, since if the train I was on returned on time I should have just caught the Loop at Woodford. Except that the female driver stayed at the rear of the platform at Epping picking flowers from a very colourful bush which overhangs the station. So we left over three minutes late, which should have meant that I would have missed the Loop at Woodford - fortunately it too left a couple of minutes late, so I just caught it.

Highlights of today:
- Catching the fabled U1 bus (for the first time ever on a challenge) just after I came out of the station which enabled me to get a train ahead later on.
- All the runs were done in daylight, which was reassuring, given I had a nasty knife incident in a dark alley on my first ever full network.
- Even though I was only going to jog the runs yesterday, I did so even when in theory there was no need, which paid off by enabling me to catch late running trains I wasn't expecting. (In fact on a couple of occasions had I run hard, I may have gained a couple more, as I saw trains I wasn't expecting leaving as I approached the station. I suppose if I were tech savvy and using a smart phone I might have had foreknowledge of these?)

So overall I really enjoyed it yesterday - maybe because I wasn't feeling pressured about doing a fast time. But it shows how much luck plays a part - Geoff has reported elsewhere the disasters he encountered.
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by geofftech »

Nigel wrote: Except that the female driver stayed at the rear of the platform at Epping picking flowers from a very colourful bush which overhangs the station. So we left over three minutes late, which should have meant that I would have missed the Loop at Woodford - fortunately it too left a couple of minutes late, so I just caught it.
Congrats Nigel. Aside from the obvious lies ('Good Service' on Circle Line, but a crawling train takes six minutes, etc...) your statement above though is the most telling one. We've got the whole world watching us next month for the Olympics, and the tube needs to run sweetly if we're not going to be very embarrassed, so simple things like not having sloppy drivers who aren't aware of their responsibility to run to timetable could easily be another point on which it all falls apart too.
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by Cheshire Cat »

Hearty congrats Nigel and bad luck Geoff.

HT,when London is jammed full of visitors from around the world next month (some of them from cities with world-class metro services) and they are stranded in or on hot and overcrowded trains/platforms, which are they going to be interested in: the statistics or their personal experience?
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by Sam »

I don't care what you say, if TfL say there's a good service then there is a GOOD SERVICE :P
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