New reasons why a train might be delayed

Graffiti vandals tampered with signals to stop a train in a city loop tunnel so they could graffiti it, police believe. It is believed the offenders stopped the train by interfering with the signals and other train equipment about half a kilometre inside the tunnel, before spraying an entire side with graffiti.

Victoria Police spokesman Leading Constable Paul Turner said the driver had to leave his cabin, walk towards the back of the train and restart it before driving to the next platform.

...

(In an earlier attack) 30 youths jumped out of bushes and vandalised the train.

A passenger who witnessed the attack said the youths “had more than one accomplice on board”, and were phoning each other to give a “progress report”. He said the youths “jammed a brick under the train to halt it, pulled an air hose at the back to disable the train, then set to work”.

A fire broke out in an electrical substation near Richmond station about 6.30pm on Tuesday night, affecting signalling equipment. Trains were suspended on a number of major lines for about five hours. Twelve firefighters attended the scene and brought the fire under control within an hour.

Metro spokeswoman Leah Waymark said fewer trains would be running on these lines until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest, as the fire had burned the "trunking where the signalling cables are housed".

More alarming than mundane problems such as broken windows, passenger disturbances and wrong food trolleys:

Graffiti vandals tamper with signals to stop train

Quote:

Graffiti vandals tampered with signals to stop a train in a city loop tunnel so they could graffiti it, police believe. It is believed the offenders stopped the train by interfering with the signals and other train equipment about half a kilometre inside the tunnel, before spraying an entire side with graffiti.

Victoria Police spokesman Leading Constable Paul Turner said the driver had to leave his cabin, walk towards the back of the train and restart it before driving to the next platform.

...

(In an earlier attack) 30 youths jumped out of bushes and vandalised the train.

A passenger who witnessed the attack said the youths “had more than one accomplice on board”, and were phoning each other to give a “progress report”. He said the youths “jammed a brick under the train to halt it, pulled an air hose at the back to disable the train, then set to work”.

Delays to continue after trains suspended due to fire

Quote:

A fire broke out in an electrical substation near Richmond station about 6.30pm on Tuesday night, affecting signalling equipment. Trains were suspended on a number of major lines for about five hours. Twelve firefighters attended the scene and brought the fire under control within an hour.

Metro spokeswoman Leah Waymark said fewer trains would be running on these lines until Wednesday afternoon at the earliest, as the fire had burned the "trunking where the signalling cables are housed".

Rail travel in my part of the world can be so...exciting.

Trains were suspended on a number of major lines for about five hours.

A signaller would find "Stopped for unexplained reason" a bit hard to swallow!

Quote:

Trains were suspended on a number of major lines for about five hours.

A signaller would find "Stopped for unexplained reason" a bit hard to swallow!

Reading your posts, I thought that happened quite a lot when you were on the panel

... until maybe 15 minutes later when a belated announcement comes through: "Train caught fire" ...

Ve-ry funny - but it gave me an idea. How much more zest it would add to SimSig for trains to stop mid-segment and between signals for no apparent reason - until maybe 15 minutes later when a belated announcement comes through: "Train caught fire", "mass epidemic of diarrhoea due to food trolley" or something like that.

I bet that happens significantly often in real life.

This could be distinguished from a failed TC by the presence of a TD berth.

I can assure you that if my train caught fire, I'd be pressing the emergency call button on the GSM-R pretty sharpish.

major disruption i.e. fire/crashes aren't something which should/will be simulated.

If anything, a signalman is more likely to spot something untoward going on by track circuits on adjacent running lines lighting up as the train crew protect the train, as per regs.