European Tribune - Comments - Britain's slandered transport system?...

Britain's slandered transport system?... | 85 comments (85 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

I'd imagine they need to do maintenance at night. I know that's the main reason the London tube doesn't run all night. It's a 100 year old system and needs daily tweaking to keep going.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 05:43:27 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (none / 1)

New York's metro is quite as old, and doesn't stop during the night. Berlin runs all night too. The thing is, it's pretty expensive to keep the metro running at night, so taxi's end up being the preferred solution... Too expensive for some, though. Night buses in Paris are quite a revelation : plenty of black workers coming back from their day's work... at 3 or four AM.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 05:47:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (none / 1)

I've read that the tube doesn't have enough redundancy to allow for maintenance while running. I've forgotten the details, and the relevant book is in a box somewhere ...

by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 05:53:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (none / 0)

You can't do track and signalling maintenance while trains are running.

Train maintenance is relatively simple. But 'planned engineering work' is a regular feature on both the tube and on mainline trains, with train services replaced by a bus so that track maintenance can be done safely.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 08:57:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (none / 0)

You can do maintenance on one track while thinned-out off-rush-hour traffic of both directions uses the other track.

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 09:00:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (none / 1)

Not in the UK. I suspect it's physically impossible on the Tube - if only because the signalling won't support it.

The situation on mainline rail seems to be that revising the timetable and dealing with signalling issues is too much effort. So it's easier to organise a posession for a stretch of track in both directions.

I'm sure wrong-way working happens occasionally, but it doesn't seem to happen much here.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 09:11:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (none / 1)

Interesting discussion.

I know that in Stockholm there is no technical reason for the subways to close after midnight - which they do. They used to run all night (though they did not run often in the middle of the night), but a couple of years ago they decided to stop. It was a mixture of preventing crime, preventing homeless persons to sleep in the subway stations, making maintenance easier and the general urge to look like they were doing something. The night-time bus drivers were not so happy about it.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

by A swedish kind of death on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 01:52:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (4.00 / 2)

In NYC the lines are typically four track in the inner parts of the city with a local and express, splitting off into two track on the outer edges. So what you get is that for a month or two a part of the line is express or local only on weekends and/or late nights for maintenance and repairs. On the two track lines they'll sometimes shut them down entirely late nights for maintenance. But there's no conceivable reason why you would need to close the entire system at nights.

by MarekNYC on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 03:01:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (none / 0)

slight correction - if the local is down it's one way only, meaning if you want to get to a local stop you overshoot on the express and switch back on a local going the other way.

by MarekNYC on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 03:23:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (none / 0)

When they need to do maintenance in the New York system they just shut down whatever line needs maintenance overnight or on the weekend.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 01:31:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (4.00 / 2)

My subway line has been in operation every night since 1904 -- that's 103 years. It's true that maintenance is pretty much nonstop, but it's still a great ride and the stations are kitschy and fun. Unless it's 20 below zero, you don't really mind waiting fifteen minutes at 4:00 in the morning.

by Matt in NYC on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 03:10:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: tube maintenance (4.00 / 3)

The underground stations tend to be warmer than outside, so the big problem is summer. The 125th St. stop on the 1 is utterly brutal on a cold, windy, winter day. Several stories up, smack in the crossroads of two wind corridors, brrr. Though you do get nice views over the river and all across Harlem. In general the subway's got a sort of retro industrial grunge esthetic - the grime, the rats, the peeling paint, the chipped mosaics, the exposed I beams. It grows on you. Back when I lived in DC my visiting friends would mock the Metro with its clean polished granite stations and carpeted cars as antiseptic and characterless. Didn't get it then, do now. Plus rats on the tracks beats rats on the sidewalks any day; and they provide a nice distraction while waiting for a train.

by MarekNYC on Tue Apr 10th, 2007 at 03:57:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Britain's slandered transport system?... | 85 comments (85 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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