What's going on with our Tubes? Seems they're in competition to under-perform one another. First the Jubilee upgrade work refuses to die, then the Northern Line declares early bed time on school nights. Now the District has gone off the rails. Not yet literally, but almost. The Standard has seen a letter from the Railway Inspectorate criticizing London Underground over safety breaches on the green line. It is claimed that three danger signals were passed by trains on that line within a three week period. Whether this was driver or equipment error is unclear, but it does seem that staff failed to follow strict safety guidelines after each incident. In one case, the official report 'conflicts' with an audio record of the conversation between driver and signal operators. The Inspectorate has asked for an improvement plan by mid-September. Legal sanctions will apply if London Underground do not comply satisfactorily. The line could even close in a worse-case-scenario. Unhelpful reader comments at the Standard range from the knee-jerk 'Sack those responsible!' to the irrelevant 'Bumbling Boris Johnson fails again', with a lone voice of reason coming from 'Tube Driver Ian'. Image / Pixelhut. Clarification (14:30) London Underground, after consultation with the Railway Inspectorate, wish to assert that there is absolutely no danger of the District Line closing as a result of these incidents. The Evening Standard appear to have distorted the facts somewhat.
