didcot_watcher
Member
LU are now allowing drivers with red green colour blindness to drive on lines with modern digital (TBTC) signalling https://www.thetimes.com/article/2a...c?shareToken=afc8f59b1e00c4a0270c543bf60136dc
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LU now allowing drivers with red green colour blindness on resignalled lines
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Dstock7080
Established Member
Has been in place on the Jubilee Line for some 8 years;
previous thread on this Forum:
www.railforums.co.uk
a Standard article from 2019:
www.standard.co.uk
A FOi request from August 2019 reveals that 4 Operators are thus employed on the Jubilee Line:
previous thread on this Forum:
Colour-blind man's 'dream'
Wow.. A tube driver who suffers from a form of colour blindness is believed to be the first in the world with the condition to be allowed to drive a subway train. Alex Bulley, 26, has been permitted to work on the Jubilee line because it no longer has red and green signals and uses automatic...
www.railforums.co.uk
a Standard article from 2019:
Colour-blind man's 'dream' comes true as he gets job as Tube driver
A tube driver who suffers from a form of colour blindness is believed to be the first in the world with the condition to be allowed to drive a subway train.
www.standard.co.uk
A FOi request from August 2019 reveals that 4 Operators are thus employed on the Jubilee Line:
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3141
Established Member
A bit late for me to apply (actually quite a lot late). Makes sense as far as signals are concerned, but I wonder about warning lights in the cab. Maybe you can learn which ones are really important and work out how to distinguish their colours.
Dstock7080
Established Member
Each light, switch, button is clearly labelled
100andthirty
Member
I played a minor role in this decision and I retired in 2014 - clearly the Times is first (?) with the news!
3141
Established Member
I was thinking about recognising the colours if some show yellow when there's a problem and others red. My main problem is distinguishing between those two, for example at traffic lights. I would need to learn which was mainly a matter of information and which meant something serious. But never mind, as I won't be applying to become a tube driver!
Nym
Established Member
They're labelled, and they're in the same place.
LUL also don't permit the use of 'changing colour' lights in the cab environment, nor to my knowledge is colour used within any of the train control screens.
bluegoblin7
Established Member
Ishihara test. Worth saying that that's only used as the basic screening - if a fail on the Ishihara takes place then there will be more in-depth and quality testing to determine what the exact colour vision deficiency is. It's worth saying that there are still some variations of colour vision deficiency that proves a block to train operators even on ATO lines.
Yes I thought that there were something other than the dots on the cards. These cards can be unclear to people without colour blindness issues.
martin2345uk
Established Member
didn't even know this was a thing, are there any details anywhere?
Indeed, I am 100% on eyesight (with glasses) but a bit off on hearing (age related high frequencies) - I dunno the technical names of the hearing tests, but they check you out with the default tests then if not the expected result go to a deeper test; on that proved my hearing is OK for safety purposes for example for LU track access (not that I do that) I'm just NBG at the real high f sounds these days .... the real high end in the Sibelius Violin Concerto cadenzas I struggle to hear
these days, I know - sense - there is something there but unless it as an extended note I don't get it, it mars the listening.PS w.r.t. this thread I am not a train operator
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Er, I don't suppose so other than internal documents.
The recent internal campaign has attracted nearly 3k applications so far, but during the summer someone in TfL towers identified that that we need more diversity within the train op grade (we do, for example females make up just 19% of the grade) hence the planned external campaign. I don't think colour blindness is automatically classed as a disability in the UK, but we probably need more disabled people in the train op grade as well. By they way, does anyone know if 'colour blindness' the correct term or am I using outdated terminology?
If you're interested, I would register on the TfL careers website, and set up email alerts for operational roles.
(As always with LU/TfL, situations change based on operational needs, but as it stands, early December is the opening window.)
bluegoblin7
Established Member
Colour vision deficiency - CVD.
Plates 18-21 of the standard 38-plate Ishihara test set are meant to now show anything to people with normal colour vision, but show numbers to those with red-green deficiency. I have a degree of protanomaly (red-green weakness due to the red cone cells sensitivity shifting towards the green part of the spectrum) and can see nothing on them either.
Plate 1 - everyone should be able to see (the 'control' plate).
Plates 2-9 - normal vision will see one number, red-green deficiency will see a different number.
Plates 10-17 - normal vision will see a number, red-green deficiency will see nothing.
Plates 18-21 - normal vision will see nothing, red green deficiency will see a number.
Plates 22-25 - tests for protanopia/protanomaly (red cone cell deficiency) and deuteranopia/deuteranomaly (green cone cell deficiency). normal vision will see 2-digit numbers, red deficiency will see one of them, green deficiency will see the other.
Plates 26-38 use wiggly lines rather than numbers
Plates 26-27 - normal vision will see nothing, red deficiency will see one line, green deficiency will see a different line.
Plates 28-29 - normal vision will see nothing, red-green deficiency will see a line.
Plates 30-33 - normal vision will see a line, red-green deficiency will see nothing.
Plates 34-37 - normal vision will see two lines, red-green deficiency will onyl see one of them
Plate 38 - everyone should be able to see the line (the 'control' plate).
I was officially diagnosed in junior school, but I knew I was colourblind long before that (my dad used to write the colours on the coloured pencils I used for drawing). One of my maternal uncles was colourblind as well, as the defective gene was carried by the females on my mother's side. It instantly ruled out careers such as a train driver or pilot.
I managed to get a degree in electronic engineering (resistor colour codes were tricky - thank god for multimeters) and part of the medical on getting my first job as a graduate was taking the tests again (though thankfully It was for a software engineering role). i did apply to BREL (which still just about existed) in the graduate milkround but once I told them I was colourblind they said there wasn't really any point continuing.
Tetragon213
Member
I would have expected that, even with advances in technology, R-G colourblindness would be a major impediment to the role. This is most surprising, albeit a pleasant one. Technology really has come a long way!
Pakenhamtrain
Established Member
With the Ishihara Test. It's how my brother found out he is red green colour deficient
boiledbeans2
Member
TfL today seem obsessed with getting diverse candidates to become employees, as opposed to getting the best candidate. This comment isn't specific to the train op role.
This policy seems to widen the pool of 'best candidates'.
If you don't pass all the tests required, you don't get the job.