Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

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

Post by Nigel »

I was looking through my log book for Thursday's attempt (Tube 5), when I noticed that coincidentally I had visited all the stations in the same order as I had on my first attempt (Tube 1), which I didn't do on my other three goes. Both of these attempts started on the first train of the day (so not favourable early connections) and neither had any really fast transfers between ends of lines that I managed on Tube 3.

I thought it might be illuminating to see how my fortunes fluctuated throughout the day on both attempts to see what might have been possible if I transferred periods of good luck from one attempt to the other.

The overall statistics were that on Tube 5 I started 4 minutes earlier than on Tube 1 and finished 31 minutes earlier, hence posting a time which was 27 minutes quicker.

However, this hides some enormous fluctuations throughout the day:
- After 62 stations done, on Tube 5 I was 26 minutes ahead of the time on Tube 1.
- But after 172 stations done, on Tube 1 I was 23 minutes ahead of Tube 5.
- This means on Tube 1 I did the 110 stations from station 62 to station 172 an astonishing 49 minutes quicker than on Tube 5 (15 minutes of which were lost waiting for the Olympia train).

So if on Tube 5 I had managed to do these middle 110 stations in the same time as on Tube 1, but kept my rate of progress the same for the first 62 and last 98 stations I would have completed in 16h34m. This is not a record, but given the unfavourable start time and no really fast between end of line transfers, would have been quite astonishing. Obviously, the fine detail may not have worked with the timetable at a different time, but I think it does demonstrate what an enormous difference luck on the day can make, even when there are no major problems on particular lines.
Cheshire Cat
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by Cheshire Cat »

Interesting comparison, Nigel. Olympia apart, how much of the 49 minutes difference was due to Tube luck and how much was non-tube (buses, other rail, crossing roads &c)?
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Nigel
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by Nigel »

Cheshire Cat wrote:Interesting comparison, Nigel. Olympia apart, how much of the 49 minutes difference was due to Tube luck and how much was non-tube (buses, other rail, crossing roads &c)?
I think it was all tube related. Buses and other runs turned out much the same in this section of the route. Of the 49 minutes I reckon it roughly breaks down as follows:
- 15 mins late running Olympia train;
- 10 mins no longer setting up good connection for one of MHE or Loop;
- 5 mins timetabled train which didn't show up ;
- 5 mins extra leg had to be done to compensate for the above missing train (so although all stations done in same order, I went through one twice on Tube 5, which didn't on Tube 1)
- 6 mins congestion causing slow running;
- 8 mins from some really slick changes on Tube1, which were replaced by succession of normal 2 -3 minute waits on Tube 5.

Of course, if I did a similar analysis on the early and late bits of the route the situation would be reversed.
geofftech
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by geofftech »

sadly, (very sadly) a lot of luck comes into it. which is why Andi's Hammer & Tongs approach works so well - with only a 1 in 4 chance now of having a day when they are not major network failures, it all comes down to luck, when it just shouldn't.

if TfL are serious about really 'Transforming the Tube', then they should be doing it in a way which means that we too have (or have something approaching) a much nearer to world class tube system. and we don't. massive shame, huge fail.

they get their priorities all wrong, too. e.g. how is is that the H&C line between Paddington and Hammersmith has NO 'next train' indicators boards whatsoever, and yet there is money and time spent on replacing the perfectly functional ones at Stratford Jubilee with something inferior. a bit like what they've done with the entire Victoria Line DMI's. embarrassing ...

i'm in the middle of writing a long-ranty write up from last week which contains all of this. it isn't going to be pretty ... :-p
Nigel
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by Nigel »

While I agree that network failures are all too common and that is a very unfortunate part of the difference between success and failure, I think even when a more or less genuinely 'good service' is encountered then small amounts of luck can still cumulatively make a very big difference. For me that is one of the real attractions of tube challenging (probably also why the Tour de France is my favourite sporting event). Yes - to be a great tube challenger you need real skill in route planning, a detailed on the ground knowledge and ability to use it under pressure, and a reasonable level of fitness. But on top of that a few tiny pieces of good or bad luck (i.e. trains running a little late or a little early) can as I've just shown catapult a challenge from being behind to being ahead (or vice versa).

On Thursday, from about 5.00pm onwards I just kept on stealing back little bits of time here and there, and never once slipped back from the most optimistic schedule (despite a few scares on the way). That's why I finished on a high, I didn't feel at all drained and exhausted, was really up to pushing it on my final two runs, and for once slept soundly that night.

For me the real shame is that the farce of the Olympia service makes it nearly impossible now to mount a serious assault on the record. And if you do, there is a not insignificant chance you will be completely scuppered by a network failure.
Cheshire Cat
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by Cheshire Cat »

geofftech wrote:sadly, (very sadly)they get their priorities all wrong, too. e.g. how is is that the H&C line between Paddington and Hammersmith has NO 'next train' indicators boards whatsoever, and yet there is money and time spent on replacing the perfectly functional ones at Stratford Jubilee with something inferior. a bit like what they've done with the entire Victoria Line DMI's. embarrassing ...
That was what I thought on my recent trip, too. It's nine years since I worked in London, so my memory of exactly what station had which type of PIS is a bit hazy, but it does seem that stations that had had first generation DMIs have had these replaced, whereas other stations have don't have any. Why hasn't somewhere Earl's Court (not exactly a quiet backwater) been given a proper, modern, user friendly PIS? Surely it's better to bring everywhere up to a decent standard rather than moving some stations onto their second generation DMIs when others are yet to get them. You would have thought decent PIS would be a priority with all those Olympic visitors coming, or is TfL hoping some of them will get on the wrong trains to try and distribute them more evenly over the system? :wink:
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snudge27
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by snudge27 »

geofftech wrote:how is is that the H&C line between Paddington and Hammersmith has NO 'next train' indicators boards whatsoever, and yet there is money and time spent on replacing the perfectly functional ones at Stratford Jubilee with something inferior. a bit like what they've done with the entire Victoria Line DMI's.
Probably stating the obvious, but might that be because on that section all of the westbound trains are going to the same destination, and all of the eastbound trains are via the north side of the circle, where one can change to an appropriate train if necessary? I don't think there'd be much point in having indicators on the WB at least, seeing as they'd only tell us what we already know (the next train will be to Paddington H&C, in an arbitrary amount of time).
cheshire cat wrote:Why hasn't somewhere Earl's Court (not exactly a quiet backwater) been given a proper, modern, user friendly PIS? Surely it's better to bring everywhere up to a decent standard rather than moving some stations onto their second generation DMIs when others are yet to get them.
I guess that's because the current ones do exactly the same job as the ones that would be brought in (and the fact that they're listed and can't be removed). It would be pointless for Earl's Court to have indicators capable of showing multiple trains, as it's generally unknown which platform the train will be coming in to until it is on its approach to Earl's Court. Also, unlike most other SSL stations, installation of modern screens would require more work as there isn't a convenient ceiling to hang them from.

In honesty I think LU could do away with the countdown timers, given how inaccurate they generally are, and just settle for something like either one of these, which show line, destination, and intermediate stations:

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

Post by greatkingrat »

That would be a big step backwards, particularly on lines with multiple branches.
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snudge27
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Re: Nigel's Tube 5 28/6/12

Post by snudge27 »

greatkingrat wrote:That would be a big step backwards, particularly on lines with multiple branches.
I agree with you there, but it would certainly be useful for LU to include details of intermediate stations on the indicators, given that the terminus isn't of much use to a tourist who only really wants to know 'does this train stop at the Queen's house?'.
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