Runaway Train

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

In another embarrassment for London Underground Ltd's love affair with new technology, TBTC apparently sent a train hurtling down the Northern line without stopping at four stations during Friday's evening peak.

Of course, we do not yet know the full, gory details - and no doubt LUL will be desperately scrabbling around to find a way of blaming either the service control staff or the driver. But there is no getting away form the fact that this involved automatic train operation and a system that thinks computers can supercede human beings.

The danger is that we will get use to incidents like this (so long as they don't start killing people, that is) and stop making a fuss. Instead, this should be shouted from the rooftops so that every passenger knows the risks that the company is taking with their safety in its headlong pursuit of automation, motivated by its determination to push workers out and cut costs.

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