What a day

Wow. We had some big problems on the Central line this morning, I haven't seen a morning like this one in a long time. A problem with the signalling around MIE (Mile End) had been causing problems for a while and these were still very much ongoing when I arrived on the railway at about 08:00 this morning. The WOO train was standing in the platform when I turned up at ROV and it looked like it had been there for a little while. What with the problems, though, it was still a short while before it was cleared up to WOO and I was able to make the train with ease.

That was probably the smoothest bit of my journey, at least as far as LIS (Liverpool Street). Before long we reached WOO which was, understandably, busy. Additionally, there was a train in the bay platform and another one in one of the sidings. I was quite pleased to have an excuse to be late and I didn't think I would be able to get on the next westbound, so I took the chance to have a little peek and see if there were any other trains in the sidings or anything else worth a look. I had thought the WOO train might end up in the sidings as well, but, in the end, it didn't and it pulled into eastbound platform 3, bound for HAI (Hainault), pretty quickly. Actually, the rest of the eastbound service was in a sorry state and I think I only saw one other eastbound train between WOO and LES (Leytonstone).

After having to let another train go, because it was too busy, I managed to get myself on the next westbound train, which was comparatively quiet and had, I think, come down from LOU (Loughton). It soon filled up to bursting point, though. We had a fair wait in WOO before we were cleared up as far as SOW (South Woodford). Wood Lane were clearing trains up one station at a time, so our journey consisted of: hold, move up one station, hold, move up one station, hold. Some of these holds were at least ten minutes long; we had big, big waits at SOW and SNA (Snaresbrook).

Throughout all of this, our T/Op was fantastic, he really was. He kept us regularly updated and informed and made sure everyone - including any newcomers at any given station - knew what was happening. Additionally he let us know as much as he could about any buses, etc. we could take, taking care to find out as much information as possible, because this clearly wasn't his local area. As well as that, he let us know when he had a clear signal and then when he was actually cleared to move up, giving everybody time to get on board. This allowed people to get some fresh air and have a bit of a wander if they wanted (although I didn't do this, because I doubted I would get back on.)

As well as the efforts of our T/Op, I reckon Wood Lane did a really cracking job keeping up any kind of service - it must have been absolutely manic in that control room this morning, so I take my hat off to them for getting trains worked through the problem and getting people around. From where I was standing, it seemed like they were doing exactly the right thing to get people moving as much as possible, to not leave poor beggars stranded in tunnels and make sure trains were regulated through the area safely. Tough job nicely done.

Anyway, after a big hold, we left SNA and were briefly held at LES 5760, the signal controlling access to LES westbound platforms, before being routed into platform 1. Again, the T/Op took care to find out which train (ours or the one in platform 2, which was already there when we arrived) would be leaving first. In the end, it was ours - which was nice. All told, though, it was at least an hour since I'd arrived at ROV when we left LES and even I - with my love for the tube - was feeling the pain from the cold and the cramped standing conditions. I also had a heavy bag with me (sorry Aslefshrugged, if you happen to read this, but I hope you'll be pleased to know that I carried my rucksack, unlike one or two of my fellow passengers (there wasn't much room for it on the floor and I'm a bit of a clean freak anyway and don't like dumping my possessions on the ground)).

After clearing the bottle-neck that is LES, things eased up a bit and eventually we made STR (Stratford), where a member of station staff put a smile on my face when we pulled in by welcoming us with 'you made it, at last'. He was a nice guy - exactly what you want, helpful, funny and kind. As soon as he saw me wander out of the train he asked me if I needed any help. He advised me to take a mainline train into LIS, from STR - which, of course, is the best option. As I said to him, however, that might have made me less late for class and I had a bona fide excuse to be late, which I wasn't gonna pass up. More to the point, though, I am TUT and I was more concerned with seeing what would happen at MIE and having something to write about than getting to class on time :P I'd noticed the cab door open, though, and I wanted to say thank you to the very helpful T/Op for his efforts - it ain't easy when delays are that bad.

At MIE there were many men in high visibility clothing standing at the end of the platform (to be honest, I don't really know enough about this side of things to hazard a decent guess at exactly what they do and what they're called - I'm not sure if they count as P-way, but I'm guessing they were there to fix the signalling problem and are probably signalling technicians/engineers or something). By this time things had emptied out a bit - quite a lot of people left at STR, which is the first actual interchange station. Since this was where the problem was, we went through to BEG (Bethnal Green) very slowly. Again, I'm on a topic I don't know so much about - I'm not quite sure about the rules and procedures on the Central line, but if I had to make a suggestion, I'd say we were probably heading through in restricted manual. Certainly it was slow going and a bit jerky. I'm not sure about the jerking, my guess is it's the result of the train trying to limit itself to 18 kph (and perhaps finding it difficult with the gradient), or maybe the T/Op was trying to keep speed in RM or coded. I'm not really sure, so I'll stop postulating, but it looked to me like some sort of degraded working, my best bet would be that we passed a signal at danger on the authority of someone at Wood Lane, who were regulating trains through the area, and were, therefore, going through in RM. Obviously we had to proceed with caution and the T/Op would presumably have been tasked with keeping a keen eye out for any obstructions. Whatever it was, suffice it to say it was a long journey from MIE to BEG at lower than normal speed, with a little bit of random hard braking here and there at the start of the journey. It was quite nice, though, for me to get a look at the tunnels. I mean, okay, they're only tunnels, they're not that fun, but we were going slowly enough to be able to see the tunnel lining and all of that.

Ultimately, however, we made it to BEG and after that it was pretty smooth running in to LIS. I walked on to the sub-surface line platform and, there, my back crumbled into dust. Having no desire to get on another full train I let a Hammersmith train go and recovered for a bit, before boarding the Wembley Park train, where I was able to get a seat. I chose quite a good one actually - enjoyed some of the best views I've been able to have for a long time. There was a lovely moment where I could see the end of a tunnel, the back of our train coming round a corner heading into the tunnel and the back of a train heading in the opposite direction. It was actually pretty easy going to King's X after that. All the same, I rocked up in class upwards of an hour late :P

At King's X, I happened to notice that the Central line was being advertised as part closed LES - LIS, with severe delays on the rest of the line. Now, this could have been simply old news, which was no longer true. I wonder, though, whether I got lucky and (perhaps with more people now avoiding the Central line) they'd since suspended the line in order to get people on the track to fix the problem. Certainly, when I did return to the Central line, it was being shown as having severe delays due to "emergency engineering work at MIE", so perhaps they did suspend it for a bit to do the work.

Anyway, as I say, I did eventually return to the tube to get home, but not for a while, as I'd arranged to meet a friend (it was a really lovely late morning + afternoon, too). I don't think I could have arrived at King's X again before 14:15. My poor Central line still had severe delays, however. Consequently, I decided to change off of my Circle line train at LIS for a Hammersmith & City line train to MIE. I'm quite glad I did, it was a nice novelty, and I never fail to enjoy passing Aldgate on the way to Aldgate East.

However, I probably needn't have bothered. Most people had been deterred from using the Central line and it was a really empty train, hardly anyone on it, given the time of day. The service pattern at MIE on the eastbound Central line made fairly interesting reading, mind:

EPP 1 min
HAI via NEP 2 mins
HAI via NEP 3 mins
EPP 10 mins

Still, luckily for me, my train pulled in in no time and it was actually a lovely journey up to WOO. At WOO (I was starving) I bought myself a rather nice bakewell tart from the little shop on the platform, which I ate while I waited for the HAI train. I was quite happy to see that it was reversing off platform 2 (presumably due to the late running) and I took in another novelty - the starter at the BUH/ROV end of platform 2 showing green - before getting on board and heading off (over the crossover, which was nice) to ROV.

And that, in the end, was that. Not much else to say, really. Noticed a Dagenham East train at MIE on the way in, though. Not very exciting and quite possibly a timetabled working, just a comparative rarity. When I arrived at ROV the Central line's situation had been downgraded to minor delays and it was advertised as having a good service by the time I'd sat down with a cup of tea and fired-up my laptop. A thank you and a tip of my hat, then, to everyone involved in getting things up and running again. Better luck tomorrow for us all, I hope :P