Signals that tell you not to stop?

["Brendan" <nadnerb_2000@nospam.start.com.au>]

Yesterday evening travelling from Central to Strathfield on CityRail, we
bypassed the scheduled stop of Ashfield. The train had slowed down to about
40 k's on the approah, but then seemingly the brakes went off, the throttle
was put in top notch and we roared through. This of course, aggravated
commuters who had only seconds before been told that there would be a stop
there, only to have to change at Croydon (which was not a scheduled stop).

The guard announced about 60 secs after passing ashfield that the error was
due to a signal problem.

Is anyone aware of a signaling situation that would do that? Or, is it the
case, as is my suspicion, that "signal failure" is CityRailish for "the
driver stuffed up"?

Brendan