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I've never been in a derailed vehicle but from the descriptions of passengers who have the magnitude and character of the vibration is completely different to normal service, hugely different. So different that it really ought to be an easy proposition to detect. Yes it would need processing...

Didn't know that and the level of vibration when an axle derails is so sustained and so marked it shouldn't be difficult to make such a system that isn't hugely costly and doesn't produce too many false alarms.

It ought to be practical to devise sensors that tell the driver to stop and examine if there is sustained and hugely excessive vibrations in any vehicle in the train, certainly in passenger stock which has (the potential for) complex comms between vehicles. Not as a quick cheap retrofit but...

This discussion happens on here from time to time. The issue is how long it takes to rescue people and giving the people on the trains good information.

Was there not a few years ago a huge fuss when a Durham academic got off at Darlo and the upshot was that stopping short whilst not approved would be allowed? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-11420790 . This doesn't have the end of the story but IIRC it was a softening of attitude.

That this discussion is happening at all shows that rail lacks a sufficient ethos of customer service. No buffer (sorry) of a slight excess of rolling stock for breakdowns, actually the opposite as the buffer is often shortforming. Full and standing seems to be accepted as normal, new trains...

Apologies, I should have looked for a map. It is about a mile but a couple of miles of the freight line will need more or less complete re-making. You can see the condition at Woodhorn. Not that it matters, Newbiggin isn't a vast sprawling metropolis and although it is a pleasant place which...

In the NE local politics is going mad over the Northumberland line. The council (I got their paper recently through the door) says it is actively pursuing an extension to Newbiggin, which is several miles of new railway even if it is on the very old alignment. It is about votes.

Unfair, this mess is not his making. Now we know you can be sacked for going along with DfT rollingstock decisions as well as sacked for disagreeing with them (Chris Gibb).

I'd really like to see the authority for this. One hates to mention AI but Google's AI says this is not the case. We all of course have powers of arrest.

Is there a pattern to these failures? Are they a limited set of problems - like doors? I know they are very different but the 80X sets seem to have entered service much more seamlessly so it isn't that Hitachi simply makes low quality stuff.

"I believe pollen has been a factor too." My point remains.

The weather hasn't been so hot that it is reasonable to tolerate failures for that reason alone.

That is the point, it is worth something like double time and they pay less, so they depend on overtime as it is cheap

Overtime is cheap. That is the thing. For NHS doctors (the one area I do know about) double time for overtime is actually cheaper than extra staff.

If you've been following the NHS, roads, armed forces, education etc. you know the answer. If not you can work it out. Rail isn't an exception.

This is the British disease. Not doing what is plainly best on the grounds we can "get away" with a lower cost solution. Not doing something until it can't be put off any longer. While we plan like this we will have solutions like this.

Axle counting must be easier to immunise?

What are the arrangements on Thameslink? Hasn't northbound changeover moved from Farringdon to City Thameslink? Does that leave a small length of both on northbound? Edit: Got my north and south mixed up see below.

Thanks for a full reply, something of which I was not aware. I'm intrigued that we do not find ourselves able to (?easily, ?economically) prevent this either at train or signalling level and obviously at the current (sorry, present) level of problems it isn't urgent but it seems likely to...