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Colour-blind man's 'dream'
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bengley
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Just to clarify, this is not an april fools' joke, despite it being published yesterday
Adlington
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The article hints at what helps to get a tube train driver job:
CaptainHaddock
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How does he drive himself to work if he's rostered to drive the first or last tube trains of the day?
Drive his car probably. Being colour blind does not stop you driving in the UK, and it isn't a reportable condition to the DVLA either.
Presumably the DVLA thinks colour blindness is not a significant risk when driving a car. Traffic lights are of a standard configuration with red at the top, amber in the middle and green at the bottom, so a colour blind person can easily decipher what colour lights are illuminated.
Deafdoggie
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Indeed. Many medical conditions don’t need to even be reported to the DVLA (although many surprising ones do!) that preclude working on the railways.
But then roads and rails & cars and trains are very different.
But then roads and rails & cars and trains are very different.
Just because the Isihara tests show up a red/green deficiency doesn't mean you can't distinguish lights of those colours. It can make it difficult to tell brown from green in poor light, but traffic lights are no problem at all, trust me. I'm delighted a fellow-sufferer has made it into the cab.
London Underground provides a network of timetabled staff taxis that cover most of Greater London, and a select few places outside, to get staff to and from work before and after the traffic day.
Train crew depots also have car and cycle parking, and most are accessible by the Night bus network.
pdeaves
Established Member
Anyone else mildly amused by the story that someone is now a driver on a train that 'drives itself'?
Not really, no.
Adlington
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Yes, mildly...
I believe the official title for LU is Train Operator
LOL The Irony
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Get used to it, it's probably going to be on some heavy rail lines by 2050.
bramling
Veteran Member
I’ll happily share the humour, however more seriously driving a train is not really that difficult, especially nowadays. It’s all the other things that make the job what it is, for example shiftwork, having to perform at 100% all the time (99.9% is no good if it leads to a safety incident), route knowledge, defect handling, degraded working, et cetera, plus having to deal with, being diplomatic, “interesting” managements!
You can't drive a train without route knowledge, rules, traction and giving 100% attention and concentration so I'm not sure what you mean by its not that difficult. You mean turning or pushing a handle on its own without all the other stuff? Maybe not, but it's not realistic to isolate just the handle turning because that's not how the job is. Is it easy to turn a handle at 125mph in thick fog during leaf-fall season and still stop at all the stations, keep to the speeds and keep to time? I know it's not quite like that on the underground but it's the same principle. I guess what the underground lacks in speeds and seasonal factors it makes up for in sheer intensity of work, passenger numbers and lack of daylight. I don't buy the handle turning is easy argument because you cannot isolate parts of the job like that. Every new driver I've ever seen come into the grade thinking it's easy street doesn't take long to start racking up the safety incidents.
With regard to this guy getting a train operator job, good for him and good for all those who challenged the status quo to make it happen. I wish him all the best in his career and hope this paves the way for opening the job up to more people with medical restrictions.
Nym
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Only been the case for 16 years. Nice to see medical requirements keeping up with operations as usual.
theironroad
Established Member
I read this this morning in the metro, but am a bit confused.
I realise the jubilee,central and vic all have ato as a normal method of working for the most part, but what happens in 'degraded' working when ato fails and the train has to be driven under manual conditions?
Are there no red or green signals or is it all static block markers?
This all confuses me too. I believe there are colour lights on the vic and central line but jubilee and northern don’t seem to signalled at all
Monty
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Am I right in thinking that on the Jubilee the driver can also opt to drive the train in 'manual' mode at his discretion if he so wishes?
theironroad
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If the in cab signalling stops and trains are stranded between stations, is there not some sort of 'proceed on sight' system. Let's not forget red lights are not only used in fixed signalling, but tail lights and as a basic rule book hand signal to stop trains.
I'm not really familiar with colour blindness, but if someone is colour blind involving seeing red, then what colour do they see as a replacement?
Dieseldriver
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As far as I understand it, that only applies on the Central Line?
From my understanding, reds and greens become browns
As a colour defficient sufferer. And one should really stop calling it colour blind as it’s a misnomer which leads to huge misunderstandings. Because colour is a spectrum not a individual. Colour diffident suffers would struggle to see differences between tones of colour so for me it’s reds and brown and blues and purple as the green cone is missing or not functioning. It really doesn’t effect the signals sadly. I’m glad to see it’s starting to be revised and considered on a individual basis not a complete blanket statement.
Being colour blind, I can categorically state that I have no issues with traffic lights - the red, amber and green lights are easily distinguishable for me.
Railway signals, on the other hand, I struggle to differentiate between red and yellow - I can't explain why.
causton
Established Member
For colours painted on a surface, maybe. Don't forget emitted light is different to reflected light.
For me an amber and red light/signal are indistinguishable. They both look an orangey red colour. But I have no trouble telling between red and green paint on a car for example, but it all depends on the circumstances and lighting!
Everyone is different though so this may not fit everyone.
I do wonder if the railway will use the Farnsworth Lantern test for colour vision? For a Class 1 (commercial) or Class 2 (private) pilot's medical, candidates who fail the Ishihara test I believe can take the Farnsworth Lantern test instead. Red/Green colour vision is essential in aviation since a control tower can send indications to pilots by using colour light signals.
Lol. Bit of a contradiction that ain’t it. Is allowed to drive a train. Train drives itself. So he isn’t a “driver”. He is an operator. He opens the doors. Closes the doors. Pushes to the start button. Train drives itself to next station. He then opens the doors. Not a driver.
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To be fair that is the official title of LU drivers. They are Train Operators. Even manual driven lines like bakerloo/picc/sub surf, same title.
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