Geoff's Tube 18 - 13th February 2012

[The Raven]

Bad luck Geoff. Snow and speedy transport don't mix it seems...

You seem to have had a much nicer driver at Watford than we did! Unless Myles has to work on being more charming!

[Root]

Tough luck. Thanks for sharing the write-up, I enjoyed it.

[palkanetoijala31]

Bad luck Geoff. Snow and speedy transport don't mix it seems...

You seem to have had a much nicer driver at Watford than we did! Unless Myles has to work on being more charming!

well if he stopped offering man love to drivers it might work perhaps he should get the gay ones!

[hopeful traveller]

We always tend to find that if you talk to staff niely, the majority of the time they are nice back to you! This was the chap at the ticket office/gateline at Watford though, not the driver. We gather that he sees a lot of challengers come through. Same as the chap on the Ickenham gateline that we chatted to once who told us that he sees challengers quite often.

It was just shamboloic for the first few hours. They ended up running a shuttle service between Chesham and Watford - trains regularly going back and forth over the north curve. And the Jubilee didn't come back on at all until past 9am, which is just shocking.

The quote is "We must investigate what happened to ensure that it never happens again", which is what they said last time engineering overran. And the time before that, and the time before that.

The rumour was though is that they put everything back together in the Neasden area, and switched it all 'on', and it failed to come alive!

Definetely not doing it agan now until after the clocks go forward ... definetely.

Geoff, I may sound like a puppet of TfL but I believe it was a one-off... journey times are faster as well - so what is the point you are trying to make?

[Iain]

Rotten luck Geoff, if it's any consolation the service looked rubbish even late in the evening with severe delays

The slipperiness is horrible, not sure why they don't grit/salt the platforms. Rain is bad enough, I can't believe they can't come up with a better surface for wet conditions. The Raven had a nasty fall on our last run and that was just light rain.

[palkanetoijala31]

Who is mike brown some high up in tfl or Anthony and kevin half brother or distant relative?i should point out that at least 6 of my attempts have been for charity so not rushing at all and 5 actually not going for record but supporting somebody else who wished to complete! so thats 25 proper attempts and i didnt even include the 3 where the start went wrong and didnt even start the watch!so thats 22 so 4 out of 22 attempts is a good average.

Come to think of it i have probably had 2 records snatched at the last moment last couple of hours went wrong but to say the service was better years ago i think its exactly the same me and iain were planning an attempt the other week we cancelled due to the snow and ice knew it wasnt worth it!

[Iain]

Have to say I really hate all the posters etc saying "ooh look how much better we are" - if you really are, people with notice for themselves.

[palkanetoijala31]

as per Geoff request here are my stats and reasons for non completion

Tube 1 aborted inexpierance not knowing of overground between gunnersbury and richmond.
Tube 2 completion could have been record if we knew the unofficial time would have not been recognised.
Tube 3 aborted bad planning at Start no taxi from hotel to starting station injury to team member and too far behind.
Tube 4 aborted Victoria problems
Tube 5 completion could have been record District line problem late in day.
Tube 6 completion successful record.
Tube 7 completion successful record.
Tube 8 completion Fast time no real problems to note.
Tube 9 completion Fast time could have been record if got on ken o train missed by 10s no real problmes to note.
Tube 10 completion Charity team not going for record
Tube 11 aborted Cock up by not knowing a run never done and went 1.4 miles in wrong direction.
Tube 12 aborted filmed attempt injury to half the team and suspension of district.
Tube 13 completion injury to team members.
Tube 14 completion Charity not going for record but fast time was done.
Tube 15 completion serious delays Aldgate bakerloo and Victoria.
Tube 16 completion due to reworking around delays 17 changes of route planning needed lots of db wasted the time.
Tube 17 completion could have been record if left other team members behind perhaps.
Tube 18 aborted Walthamstow problems and Edgware road suspension.
Tube 19 aborted in support role for other member.
Tube 20 aborted Train driver incident.
Tube 21 aborted Picc issues again at ickenham.
Tube 22 completion possible close to record lost nearly half an hour right at end of day due to delays.
Tube 23 aborted could have been record if left a certain team member behind.
Tube 24 Completion successful record.
Tube 25 aborted start problems.
Tube 26 aborted start problems.
Tube 27 aborted start problems.
Tube 28 aborted in support role for other member.
Tube 29 aborted in support role for other member.
Tube 30 aborted didnt have confidence in other team members.
Tube 31 aborted due to time constraints charity not going for record.
Tube 32 aborted in support role for ohter member.
Tube 33 completion successful record.
Tube 34 aborted Bakerloo line problems.
Tube 35 completion charity not going for record.
Tube 36 completion in a way in support role for other member.

7 times the network has played up for me in a way 2 times costing a record 2 times i think it was just unfortunate to miss out and twice to get record.
lots of abortions at start due to bad planning or me being drunk usually and other i have supported through the times sometime really should have gone on alone but didnt.

[hopeful traveller]

[rant at TfL]

The average journey time is down on the Jubilee Line and it is more reliable now. The official completion date of the upgrade was June '11, after which, the journey times decreased significantly.

Victoria is to be completed this year.

[Sam]

[rant at TfL]

The average journey time is down on the Jubilee Line and it is more reliable now. The official completion date of the upgrade was June '11, after which, the journey times decreased significantly.

Victoria is to be completed this year.

Are you the head of TfL or something.... The jubilee line is DIRE compared to what it used to be!!

[tubeguru]

He's practising for when he becomes a politician. Always put a positive spin on something, no matter how shit it is.

[Root]

It's because the guy in charge at the big round building on Queen's walk wears a blue tie. Expect it all to be crap again if a guy wearing a red tie moves back in later this year.

[jamesthegill]

It's because the guy in charge at the big round building on Queen's walk wears a blue tie. Expect it all to be crap again if a guy wearing a red tie moves back in later this year.

[hopeful traveller]

[rant at TfL]

The average journey time is down on the Jubilee Line and it is more reliable now. The official completion date of the upgrade was June '11, after which, the journey times decreased significantly.

Victoria is to be completed this year.

Are you the head of TfL or something.... The jubilee line is DIRE compared to what it used to be!!

The actual TFL figures from 13 Nov - 10 Dec 11: (highlighted bits that have been discussed)

Percentage of Schedule:

Nov-Dec 2010: 93.9%
Oct-Nov 2011: 97.5%
Nov-Dec 2011: 97.4%
Target: 96.7%

Excess Journey times:

7.84 mins
6.04 mins
5.82 mins
6.62 mins

Total Journey Times:

Nov-Dec 2010: 45.94 mins
Oct-Nov 2011: 44.05 mins
Nov-Dec 2011: 43.69 mins
Morning Annual Average: 44.15 mins

Percentage of scheduled kilometres operated is:

Period 8 Period 9 Target
Bakerloo 96.2 97.6 96.9
Central 97.3 96.6 97.2
Victoria 96.2 96.7 95.5
District 97.9 98.2 97.4
Metropolitan 97.3 96.4 96.9
Circle & Hamm 96.2 96.7 92.8
Jubilee 97.7 97.4 94.8
Northern 98.5 99.2 98.0
Piccadilly 97.6 96.8 97.4
Waterloo & City 98.4 99.5 95.7
NETWORK 97.5 97.4 96.7
Higher percentages represent better performance


Percentage of schedule remained ahead of the network target at 97.4%, although three lines recorded small shortfalls. On the Central line services were suspended between White City and Marble Arch for 5 hours on 16 November due to a track fault, and the line also suffered passenger ill on train incidents on 5 and 9 December and operator shortage on 10 December. A track circuit failure at North Harrow on 13 November, a signal failure at Chalfont on 10 December and several defective
train incidents reduced Metropolitan line performance. Piccadilly line services were disrupted in the first week of the period by a cracked rail and a signal failure at Covent Garden and passenger action at Green Park.

Excess Journey Time:

Period 8 Period 9 Target
Bakerloo 4.06 3.72 4.64
Central 5.76 6.16 5.84
Victoria 6.83 6.66 7.22
District 3.16 2.67 3.75
Metropolitan 6.28 6.28 6.82
Circle & Hamm 5.22 4.83 5.44
Jubilee 3.58 3.53 5.27
Northern 4.00 3.69 4.35
Piccadilly 4.75 5.05 4.76
Waterloo & City 1.49 1.47 2.33
NETWORK 6.04 5.82 6.62
Lower numbers represent better performance

Journey Time:

Schedule Excess Total
Bakerloo 28.92 3.72 32.63
Central 32.15 6.16 38.31
Victoria 24.10 6.66 30.76
District 31.20 2.67 33.87
Metropolitan 43.07 6.28 49.35
Circle & Hamm 31.47 4.83 36.30
Jubilee 26.50 3.53 30.03
Northern 29.86 3.69 33.55
Piccadilly 32.16 5.05 37.20
Waterloo & City 8.15 1.47 9.62
NETWORK 37.87 5.82 43.69
Lower numbers represent better performance

Mean Distance between failures (KM):

Period 8 Period 9 Average
Bakerloo 11,032 8,499 11,513
Central 11,970 10,265 10,549
Victoria 9,935 19,473 11,363
District 22,586 54,991 27,813
Metropolitan 6,018 4,619 10,045
Circle & Hamm 10,887 9,025 8,819
Jubilee 12,395 14,260 12,262
Northern 28,454 36,973 22,667
Piccadilly 24,947 61,976 36,189
Waterloo & City 5,780 5,621 10,279
NETWORK 13,439 14,236 13,930
Higher numbers represent better performance

So generally, better.

[Sam]

That's the thing with statistics, they can be twisted/altered to suit.

Oh and I'm sorry but some of us have been in this game a long time and the service is a lot worse that it was a few years ago....