Elizabeth Line moving with no driver at Paddington

[800001]

Not seen this posted anywhere, The Sun have a story of an Elizabeth Line train (described as a Tube train), mining from Paddington to Westbourne Sidings and back with out the driver on board. Driver had gone to toilet at Paddington.

Tube speeds off with NO driver on board after they hopped off for loo break

A TRAIN sped off without a driver on board after they hopped off for an “emergency” toilet break. The anonymous driver on London’s Elizabeth Line had warned a signaller that they …

www.thesun.co.uk

A TRAIN sped off without a driver on board after they hopped off for an "emergency" toilet break.

The anonymous driver on London's Elizabeth Line had warned a signaller that they had to take an "emergency personal needs break" before pulling into Paddington Station.

Passengers travelling on the rush hour servicewere escorted off by platform staff while the driver headed to the loo.

But once the train doors closed, it began moving off down the tracks by itself.

In total, it travelled a mile away unmanned to Westbourne Park on Friday, October 11.

The driver had mistakenly put the train into auto-reverse mode - normally used when it's time for carrier to change direction.
A source told The Metro: "The driver probably thought the staff weren’t going to close all the doors and station staff probably thought it was in a secure state, which means it wouldn’t drive off."

Following the incident, drivers were urged to give signallers more notice if they needed toilet trips.

An alert put out said: "If you require an emergency [personal needs break] then contact the signaller and control in good time, giving as much notice as you can.

"Remember to always come to a clear understanding with not only signallers but also station staff too."
Bosses at Elizabeth Line operator MTR reported the incident to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB).

But rail accident safety investigators decided not to take further action.

A TfL spokesperson said: "Elizabeth Line trains are designed to safely reverse automatically between Paddington and Westbourne park sidings while out of passenger service.

"The train should always be staffed, so our operator, MTR Elizabeth Line, reminded all drivers of the high professional standards we set for the railway."

 

[SynthD]

That brought forward a useful in-service test by a few years.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Like the response "please give us advance notice of an emergency"

 

[swt_passenger]

Nice photo of Camden Town. The system must now allow “auto reverse, resize and randomly explore other lines”?

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Not seen this posted anywhere, The Sun have a story of an Elizabeth Line train (described as a Tube train), mining from Paddington to Westbourne Sidings and back with out the driver on board. Driver had gone to toilet at Paddington.

I thought auto reverse was standard operating practice. The idea is that the driver walks from one end of the train to the other whilst the train drives itself to the reversing siding. I'm not sure where the driver is supposed to take over control again and what the fail safe would be when the driver fails to acknowledge his or her presence.

 

[800001]

It

I thought auto reverse was standard operating practice. The idea is that the driver walks from one end of the train to the other whilst the train drives itself to the reversing siding. I'm not sure where the driver is supposed to take over control again and what the fail safe would be when the driver fails to acknowledge his or her presence.

is standard practice, the driver is meant to be in the cab from Paddington to Westbourne Sidings, once there they leave the cab and then walk through train to other cab ready for arrival back into Paddington.

 

[Recessio]

People complain we don't have driverless trains, and then complain when we do have a driverless train!

Does seem to be a procedures c*ckup rather than a technical problem/flaw though. Would be worrying if it was the latter, hopefully therefore it can be prevented by better training and communications procedures.

 

[Horizon22]

Some terrible journalism there.

Bare in mind the service would have already been terminating at Paddington, running ECS to Westbourne Park (so nobody being "escorted off"), coming back to Paddington and (almost certainly) running in service to Shenfield. Auto-reverse happens without fail hundreds of time each day

I don't think it is unheard of for a driver to take a emergency loo break at Paddington and either a) they briefly pop out whilst the train is being swept or b) a spare driver resourced to do the Westbourne Park in/out portion and crucially they obviously let station staff/control/signaller know in advance.

This driver seemingly left the cab and kept their master key in - and set up for auto-reverse - and seemingly DRA (driver reminder appliance) not put on either so once the last carriage was swept and both train doors and platform screen doors were confirmed closed, interlock was achieved and in CBTC the signalling system automatically moves the train at departure time. Another driver had to be sourced on the next service into Westbourne Park (taking a line block) to bring the unit back out again. Some tea and biscuits for the driver probably!

That brought forward a useful in-service test by a few years.

Wouldn't be that helpful - a train could theoretically move but wouldn't be able to do any dispatch duties (e.g. close doors).

 

[Samzino]

Tbh that was always a possibility with Auto Reverse but usually the driver takes the Key out. Question would be if they put the DRA on before exiting. I'd assume the reason the Key wasn't taken out is that you'd have to set the train up all over again. No excuse and certainly an interesting meeting with the manager.

Just surprised that the Train doesn't actually start its operation once you press ATO Start in Auto Reverse, as it does in normal passenger mode.

 

[Bald Rick]

Some tea and biscuits for the driver probably!

Not too much tea I hope, wouldn’t want them needing the loo again.

 

[Bigbru]

Tbh that was always a possibility with Auto Reverse but usually the driver takes the Key out. Question would be if they put the DRA on before exiting. I'd assume the reason the Key wasn't taken out is that you'd have to set the train up all over again. No excuse and certainly an interesting meeting with the manager.

Just surprised that the Train doesn't actually start its operation once you press ATO Start in Auto Reverse, as it does in normal passenger mode.

The train drives in auro reverse with the DRA set. However, when it returns to the Eastbound platform the doors don't open until the driver livens the cab.

 

[johntea]

Sure they weren't just filming for the next series of the recent BBC drama Nightsleeper?

 

[Samzino]

The train drives in auro reverse with the DRA set. However, when it returns to the Eastbound platform the doors don't open until the driver livens the cab.

Oh wow that's interesting. Unless I'm wrong but in normal ATO, the train won't move till the DRA is off, so it's interesting that Auto reverse operation occurs regardless of DRA being active.

 

[Class 170101]

Sounds like it needs a 'button' or touch screen function that confirms the driver is on board before it moves.

The key doesn't help as presumably the driver takes that out as they need that at the other end to run back into Paddington from Westbourne Park.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Sounds like it needs a 'button' or touch screen function that confirms the driver is on board before it moves.

The key doesn't help as presumably the driver takes that out as they need that at the other end to run back into Paddington from Westbourne Park.

When it's on auto reverse, in which direction is the driver supposed to be driving.

Paddington to the sidings, sidings to Paddington or neither? In this incident, did the train return to Paddington under its own volition, or wait at the sidings for rescue by a human?

 

[greatkingrat]

Oh wow that's interesting. Unless I'm wrong but in normal ATO, the train won't move till the DRA is off, so it's interesting that Auto reverse operation occurs regardless of DRA being active.

If the driver is walking through the train during the auto reverse, then presumably the DRA would be on at both ends, so the auto reverse has to ignore the DRA.

 

[Samzino]

If the driver is walking through the train during the auto reverse, then presumably the DRA would be on at both ends, so the auto reverse has to ignore the DRA.

I thought so but surely if a Key is still in one of the cabs, making that cab active then the Auto reverse system shouldn't really be ignoring the DRA if its set.

 

[Val3ntine]

Oh wow that's interesting. Unless I'm wrong but in normal ATO, the train won't move till the DRA is off, so it's interesting that Auto reverse operation occurs regardless of DRA being active.

It sort of makes sense in that the driver is supposed to leave the cab, so DRA should be set.

 

[Samzino]

It sort of makes sense in that the driver is supposed to leave the cab, so DRA should be set.

Agreed but when the key is still in the cab, making that cab active then it makes things quite interesting. If this can happen then I assume it can also happen at Westbourne as the driver makes the walk to the other end, gets to the other cab during an Auto reverse move back into Paddington and realizes the key is still in the other end.

If they've left the master key in the other cab, then they have to walk all the way back again to get that master key and that would be the ideal situation because if they have for some reason a spare and use that in the cab they've arrived in whilst the other cab is active then it will cause the train to require a Reset, if its like any of the other Aventras.

I also would wonder if the headlights change automatically to the cab that's facing the driving direction, rather than the active cab of which the master key is still in, when under AR.

A simple software tweak imo to make the train only switchable to AR mode when the doors are closed would make sense here, and one to actually acknowledge the DRA if the master key is still in, aka cab is still active. But then again seeing this isn't a regular issue I guess there's "no need for such a redundancy".

 

[RailExplorer]

Auto Reverse is activated by taking the key out (plus the various actions prior to this). You can then leave the cab as soon as the DOO monitors switch off a few seconds after departing Paddington. You then walk back through the train as it travels to WBP - you are effectively just a passenger now. When the time comes, the train will drive itself to Paddington station from WBP. There's no real requirement to do anything until the train stop at Paddington, at which point you need to have inserted your key and re-energised the cab. This action opens the train doors.

The DRA is set at both ends whilst the move is being done with Auto Reverse. You can reset the DRA, and insert the key before the train departs WBP back towards Paddington but it makes no difference whether you do this or don't.

To be honest, I really don't understand what the big deal with this event is. The driver isn't in the cab anyway during this movement (or more accurately, they don't need to be in the cab).

I have had it that the entire move from DOO monitors switching off, to the train being back on the eastbound platform at Paddington (via WBP) taking less than 6 minutes. I left pretty quickly after the DOO monitors switched off, but wasn't in the driving seat yet when the train stopped at Paddington. There was about a one minute delay before the doors opened as I got myself comfortable. Our change ends time is 7 minutes. This only happens during late running.