Failure Management

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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 01:24 #39785
Ben86
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126 posts 		I'm hoping someone on the forum can help me understand better how failures would be managed in reality, so that I can attempt to better manage them in simulation.

In particular, I'm playing the Bristol 2012 Olympics TT and have encountered a points failure at Westerleigh Jn, so that I am unable to send trains from Bristol Parkway towards Hullavington (all other routes remain available). The failure has already lasted an hour. London-bound HSTs from Cardiff (1L2X in the attached image) have begun stacking at Bristol Parkway, but these are now blocking the path of trains bound for Bristol TM and beyond (1F23 in the attached image).

In reality, I imagine the signaller would manage the situation in cooperation with the Train Operating Company (TOC). To me, there are a number of options:

1. Divert London-bound trains via Bath.
2. Terminate trains at Bristol Parkway and send ECS to depot or shuttle services back to Cardiff (providing road transport for passengers onward to Swindon).
3. Continue to wait for the points failure to be fixed, with potential for lengthy delays to other trains.

N.B. The above list will not be an exhaustive set of options. Options 1 and 2 would require TT editing.


A crucial unknown variable is the expected length of failure- if the failure is about to clear then my problem will be easily solved (option 3), but if the failure were to last another hour or so, I would have to come up with an alternative strategy. In reality, would the signallers have an expected fix time? If not, at what point would they consider abandoning timetables and redirecting trains? To what extent is this their decision vs. the TOC? In this example, if the signaller had known straight away the fix time would be 2 hours, he would presumably have started diverting immediately?

Assuming this information is available in reality, a potential new feature for SimSig might be an estimated fix time, similar to those provided for train delays?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 01:48 #39788
postal
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5190 posts 		Experience as a traveller rather than someone involved in the process suggests that the management of the failure comes down to a balance between holding trains and letting them pass once the problem is fixed and throwing the towel in and ringing up the bus company.!

In SimSig you are not just the signaller, you are also the TOC controller and have to make your decisions with both hats on. Things like TT editing may mean you have to pause the sim for a minute or two, but I expect that is not unreasonable if you are doing 2 or 3 different jobs at the same time. Whatever decisions you make can only be seen as right or wrong in hindsight, but whichever way you go, you have to live with the consequences.

The expected length of failure has been raised before (in 2009), for instance and would be a helpful addition.
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Last edited: 29/12/2012 at 01:49 by postal
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 01:54 #39789
Ron_J
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329 posts 		It's all done in conjunction with Operations Control. The Signaller reports the problem to Control, who mobilise the fault team(s) and liase with the TOC. Decisions about the service will be taken jointly by the TOC Control and the NR Train Running Controller and are usually delivered to the Signaller for action as a fait accompli. Expected fix times come from an initial assessment of the problem made by the S&T or Pway fault teams on the ground, who usually take a short blockage between trains just to see if there is anything that can be done quickly. Sometimes they're able to sort the problem straight away, but sometimes a longer spell of fault finding or repair work is needed. The Signaller will feed back what is happening on the ground to Control so appropriate decisions can be made. In the area where I work, Signallers aren't meant to speak to TOC staff (e.g. station supervisors) directly but Control sometimes turn a blind eye to ad-hoc alterations to the service if it keeps the job going. That's it really, other than to say that some areas may differ in their attitude to Signallers taking the lead and making autonomous decisions. Some areas also seem to be a lot quicker to resort to things like making wrong direction moves or setting up Single Line Working - round here the sky would fall in if Control ever suggested either of those options...
Last edited: 29/12/2012 at 01:56 by Ron_J
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 10:41 #39796
John
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884 posts 		Ben, using your example I would expect that all 1Lxx services would indeed be diverted via Bath as you suggest (In fact, I believe that is exactly what happened recently when the Hullavington lines flooded), and in spite of the inevitable delays, it's actually a fairly 'tidy' solution as I would expect all crews to sign this important diversionary route, no stations are missed, and stock and crew don't become displaced.

What you mustn't do is leave trains stranded in-between stations for an extended period of time. To do so is to risk frustrated punters decamping onto the track, at which point your problems increase considerably.
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 11:15 #39800
mfcooper
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707 posts 		" said:
What you mustn't do is leave trains stranded in-between stations for an extended period of time. To do so is to risk frustrated punters decamping onto the track, at which point your problems increase considerably.
Sussex Route Control & Southern could both learn a lot from this comment...
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 11:31 #39801
John
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884 posts 		You'd think it was obvious, wouldn't you?

Out of interest, Matt, who would instigate a wrong-direction movement to get a trapped train back into a platform? I'm guessing it would be NR Control, but could the SSM not authorise it?
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 16:35 #39813
Ben86
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126 posts 		Thanks for all the responses- good to hear your thoughts. As I am generally able to keep things running to time under normal circumstances, managing the delays and failures has become probably the greater challenge for me in SimSig, and one that I enjoy!

With regard to not leaving trains stranded between stations, is it possible in reality for the signaller to call individual trains and ask them to wait at a station? As examples in the Bristol sim, Worle, Yatton and Nailsea & Backwell all have auto starter signals in the up direction, so even if a train is timetabled to stop at any of these stations, if the signal is green there's no way of holding them until failures are fixed- I have instead held trains at Weston-super-Mare to overcome this.
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 17:20 #39814
John
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884 posts 		" said:
is it possible in reality for the signaller to call individual trains and ask them to wait at a station?


So long as the train is equipped with CSR or GSMR, then yes.

" said:
As examples in the Bristol sim, Worle, Yatton and Nailsea & Backwell all have auto starter signals in the up direction, so even if a train is timetabled to stop at any of these stations, if the signal is green there's no way of holding them
Some of the newer sims have a facility within the F11 menu where you can choose to pause a train. Unfortunately Bristol does not have this facility.
Last edited: 29/12/2012 at 17:20 by John
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 17:21 #39816
John
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884 posts 		" said:
" said:
is it possible in reality for the signaller to call individual trains and ask them to wait at a station?


So long as the train is equipped with CSR or GSMR, then yes.


[quote="Ben86" post=39813]As examples in the Bristol sim, Worle, Yatton and Nailsea & Backwell all have auto starter signals in the up direction, so even if a train is timetabled to stop at any of these stations, if the signal is green there's no way of holding them
Some of the newer sims have a facility within the F11 menu where you can choose to pause a train. Unfortunately Bristol does not have this facility.
Last edited: 29/12/2012 at 17:21 by John
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 17:54 #39817
Ben86
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126 posts 		" said:
Some of the newer sims have a facility within the F11 menu where you can choose to pause a train.
Thanks- will look out for that elsewhere.

Ben
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Failure Management 29/12/2012 at 17:54 #39818
AndyG
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1835 posts 		" said:
" said:
is it possible in reality for the signaller to call individual trains and ask them to wait at a station?


So long as the train is equipped with CSR or GSMR, then yes.

" said:
As examples in the Bristol sim, Worle, Yatton and Nailsea & Backwell all have auto starter signals in the up direction, so even if a train is timetabled to stop at any of these stations, if the signal is green there's no way of holding them
Some of the newer sims have a facility within the F11 menu where you can choose to pause a train. Unfortunately Bristol does not have this facility.
Or if you want to be purist, edit the departure time to a later time (eg 24:00), and edit back (eg 00:00) when things get moving again. But you won't score any extra points by this attention to accuracy.
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