Oops! (London Bridge, Wed Aug 1)

[whole diary]

[Worcester_Passenger]

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19075437)

Rail services to London Bridge, one of the hotspot stations during the Olympics, were delayed during the morning rush-hour.
Some passengers were stuck for about 20 minutes outside the station due to "operating problems".
...
A Southern Railway spokesman said the delays were caused when a train was signalled into the wrong platform at the station.
The 10-carriage train arrived at a platform intended for trains with eight carriages.
"It meant the train had to be sent back along the track, which caused congestion," the spokesman said.

[Electric train]

Longer trains have been laid on over the Olympic period they are not operating a special timetable, while it is embarrassing it is easy to understand the signaler making this mistake, London Bridge Signal Box is possible and most complex the busiest in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Generally so far (touch wood  ) the system is holding up very well especially compared with last week 

[Btline]

Why not use SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening) and just dump the passengers from the front 8 cars?

Did it too long to clear points/ signals? Even so, surely quicker to just dump!

[bobm]

Longer trains have been laid on over the Olympic period they are not operating a special timetable, while it is embarrassing it is easy to understand the signaler making this mistake, London Bridge Signal Box is possible and most complex the busiest in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).

Isn't the blame, as far as the railway is concerned, shared with a driver for accepting a wrong route?

[JayMac]

Why not use SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening) and just dump the passengers from the front 8 cars?

The unit(s) involved may not have been fitted with SDO, or if they were it's probable that the GPS system used on a lot of Southern's stock is of no use when a train is incorrectly routed.

[Worcester_Passenger]

I thought that GPS could be inaccurate when the train is underneath an overall roof as at London Bridge.

[Electric train]

Southern do operate 2 car Units in and out of London Bridge so SDO^▸ (Selective Door Opening) would be no help to passengers in the rear coaches if it was a 2 car unit

[paul7575]

I thought that GPS could be inaccurate when the train is underneath an overall roof as at London Bridge.

On the 377s they use platform end beacons (balises) to replace the GPS when under cover.  There were difficulties originally getting the train software to react quickly enough to the loss of GPS at the various covered terminals, (or on the underground Thameslink sections which SN 377s are also used on) but it's all fixed now.  Apparently the beacons are also used to differentiate which platform they are in when platform lengths differ at a particular station, as GPS cannot determine position accurately enough for this purpose.

Paul