Re: 20 mins to get from Parliament to Flinders St (the short way!)

[mccallum@melbpc.org.au (John McCallum)]

In article <357FC4C3.3A68A983@tig.com.au>, Michael Kurkowski <simcard@tig.com.au> wrote:

>Hi All,

>On the 12:12 Broadmeadows -> City Loop train today, we kind of got stuck
>in the city loop. We had just left parliament and about half the train i
>would say left the platform and we immediately stopped. The driver left
>his cab and walked to the back of the train and came back about 5
>minutes later. The train left again and got less than 50m up the line
>and suddenly stopped again. This time the driver didn't leave his cabin,
>but we got going again a few minutes later and the same thing happened
>again. This happened quite a few times, and it took about 20 minutes to
>get from Parliament to Flinders St. At least half of the occasions it
>sounded (and felt) as if the emergency brake had been applied. Does
>anyone know what went on here? Does this happen often? And what would
>compell a driver to jump out of the cab and walk down the tunnel to the
>back of the train and back?

>Michael.


A possible cause was the trip mechanism on the last car was inadvertantly
operated due to a fault, or something that got caught on it. I can think of no 
other cause. I do not think that the brakes can be operated from a closed cab.
Any PTC people reading would be able to answer that one.


BTW, soon after the Northern Loop opened, I was on the 4.44pm Broadmeadows 
train from Flinders Street that left on time and arrived at Parliament at 
5.25pm. The cause that time was a power failure. 

John McCallum