Trains into Victoria + Victoria line chat

[teuchter]

Once I've built my time machine one of he things I'm going to do is travel from Victoria to Paris on the "Night Ferry".

 

[TopCat]

It still runs the same route but is called flixbus now. £20 one way.

 

[teuchter]

I'm going to hold out for the time machine option thanks.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

bus station, 1890s style

 

[Puddy_Tat]

flickr user mikey ashworth has posted some bits of the 1958 report in to the victoria line, including map showing the southern end continuing out to selsdon

 

[blossie33]

Noise on the Victoria line...

London Underground: Noise levels on Tube are louder than a gig

Noise levels on the Victoria line are higher than a music concert but lower than a chainsaw.

www.bbc.co.uk

I often travel south on the Victoria line from Seven Sisters and agree that the train noise level is particularly bad on the section mentioned in the article, I have to put fingers over my ears and I've seen a few others do the same!
I wondered if it was me getting more sensitive to sounds as I've got older, but obviously not!
I do hope there's something to be done about it - feel sorry for the drivers.

 

[zedr]

Noise on the Victoria line...

London Underground: Noise levels on Tube are louder than a gig

Noise levels on the Victoria line are higher than a music concert but lower than a chainsaw.

www.bbc.co.uk

I often travel south on the Victoria line from Seven Sisters and agree that the train noise level is particularly bad on the section mentioned in the article, I have to put fingers over my ears and I've seen a few others do the same!
I wondered if it was me getting more sensitive to sounds as I've got older, but obviously not!
I do hope there's something to be done about it - feel sorry for the drivers.

I rarely get the tube anymore, apart from to go from Brixton-Seven Sisters for gigs. I had also been wondering if it had been getting noticeably louder or if I'm just getting more sensitive. Good to know others have been thinking the same!

 

[Crispy]

flickr user mikey ashworth has posted some bits of the 1958 report in to the victoria line, including map showing the southern end continuing out to selsdon

What could have been It's such an obvious route for a metro line. The A23 is choked with buses, most of which just disgorge crowds of people onto the tube at Brixton, while all the railway stations along that road aren't joined up in any sensible way.

 

[editor]

Noise on the Victoria line...

London Underground: Noise levels on Tube are louder than a gig

Noise levels on the Victoria line are higher than a music concert but lower than a chainsaw.

www.bbc.co.uk

I often travel south on the Victoria line from Seven Sisters and agree that the train noise level is particularly bad on the section mentioned in the article, I have to put fingers over my ears and I've seen a few others do the same!
I wondered if it was me getting more sensitive to sounds as I've got older, but obviously not!
I do hope there's something to be done about it - feel sorry for the drivers.

That racket has defeated every pair of noise cancelling headphones I've tried.

When the noise is at full throttle it's pretty much impossible to have a conversation with the person next to you. Why the hell is it so loud?

 

[Crispy]

That racket has defeated every pair of noise cancelling headphones I've tried.

When the noise is at full throttle it's pretty much impossible to have a conversation with the person next to you. Why the hell is it so loud?

It's ultimately down to the tight curves. The transitory "sching sching" component is the wheel flange rubbing on the side of the rail. The much louder constant "EEEEEEEEE" component is from the rectangular layout of wheels on a bogie causing some wheels to slip sideways while rolling forwards. This rubbing can cuase resonance, like a finger on a wineglass. If you hung the wheel on a wire and tapped it with a hammer, it would make the same note. The tighter the curve, the greater the slip, the louder the sound.



Given that the track geometry can't be changed, the only surefire way to get rid of the slip is to use sophisticated steering bogies that can adjust each axle independently to fit the curve. I doubt it's feasible to retrofit such things to existing trains, especially such cramped ones as used on the tube.

 

[teuchter]

Given that the track geometry can't be changed, the only surefire way to get rid of the slip is to use sophisticated steering bogies that can adjust each axle independently to fit the curve.

I believe it can be somewhat improved by rail-grinding, to get rid of the corrugations that can build up, but LU has cut back on this type of maintenance recently, due to their funding issues. So a lot of the underground network has got noticeably worse than it used to be, in the past few years.

 

[T & P]

Do Victoria trains travel at higher speeds than other lines? It certainly feels so.

 

[Crispy]

Do Victoria trains travel at higher speeds than other lines? It certainly feels so.

Higher acceleration yes, and the stations are more widely spaced, so you get across town much quicker. I don't think the top speed is much different from other tubes lines.

 

[blossie33]

It's ultimately down to the tight curves. The transitory "sching sching" component is the wheel flange rubbing on the side of the rail. The much louder constant "EEEEEEEEE" component is from the rectangular layout of wheels on a bogie causing some wheels to slip sideways while rolling forwards. This rubbing can cuase resonance, like a finger on a wineglass. If you hung the wheel on a wire and tapped it with a hammer, it would make the same note. The tighter the curve, the greater the slip, the louder the sound.

View attachment 447894

Given that the track geometry can't be changed, the only surefire way to get rid of the slip is to use sophisticated steering bogies that can adjust each axle independently to fit the curve. I doubt it's feasible to retrofit such things to existing trains, especially such cramped ones as used on the tube.

That's interesting but why has it only been happening in recent years - age related do you think?

 

[Crispy]

That's interesting but why has it only been happening in recent years - age related do you think?

teuchter's lack of maintenance theory seems like a pretty good explanation. There's a process they used to do to keep it in check, but it's not safety critical so it's not been done for 4 years.

 

[hash tag]

This doesn't give the highest speed of tube trains but shows Victoria line has a fast average speed

 

[hash tag]

There are claims of 62 and 70 MPH on the bakerloo, jubilee or northern lines

Which London tube line is the fastest? - CityMonitor

Even if you know which route you have to take, that doesn't stop you wondering which is the fastest tube line.

www.citymonitor.ai

 

[story]

That's interesting but why has it only been happening in recent years - age related do you think?

It’s always been loud. Or at least all the time I’ve been living in Brixton (35 years).
The noise on the Victoria Lone is what first started me wearing proper earplugs.
Tbh if it’s got worse I’ve not noticed: I put my earplugs in as I go down the escalator or earlier.

Eta
On reflection, I think it is louder than it was. I’m basing this on seeing people put their fingers in their ears a few weeks ago and wondering if there might come a day when there’s a class action case brought by commuters against TfL for hearing loss.

 

[editor]

For what it's worth I measured 90db ("busy traffic") on the mainly straight stretch from Brixton to Stockwell. The sound is a lot more grating than traffic, IMO.

 

[story]

I bloody love the Victoria Line.
When travelling across London I’ll plan my journey so as to get onto the Victoria line as soon as possible if I’m not, and to ride it as far as possible if I am.

 

[Silas Loom]

I used the Victoria line from Finsbury Park to Vauxhall and back every day from 2018 to the Great Plague. It never seemed particularly noisy compared with the Piccadilly line, and noise cancelling headphones were perfectly effective. Didn’t see passengers with naked ears wince, either.

 

[editor]

I used the Victoria line from Finsbury Park to Vauxhall and back every day from 2018 to the Great Plague. It never seemed particularly noisy compared with the Piccadilly line, and noise cancelling headphones were perfectly effective. Didn’t see passengers with naked ears wince, either.

I've got a really half baked theory, but here goes: if you were commuting, perhaps the mass of people on the train absorbed the sound better than when it's not so busy?

I've tested two top of the range headphones and neither managed to block out the noise when it hit maximum intensity.

 

[Silas Loom]

I've got a really half baked theory, but here goes: if you were commuting, perhaps the mass of people on the train absorbed the sound better than when it's not so busy?

I've tested two top of the range headphones and neither managed to block out the noise when it hit maximum intensity.

It was certainly always pretty full. Reasonable theory.

 

[editor]

There are claims of 62 and 70 MPH on the bakerloo, jubilee or northern lines

Which London tube line is the fastest? - CityMonitor

Even if you know which route you have to take, that doesn't stop you wondering which is the fastest tube line.

www.citymonitor.ai

Can someone explain what this means? Is the 'potential energy' stored in batteries and how would this process be accomplished? Or is just fancy words for the hump backed topography?

The Victoria line itself was built with hump-backed stations, meaning trains decelerate uphill into stations, storing gravitational potential energy, and accelerate downhill out of them, releasing it and increasing acceleration.

 

[Crispy]

Can someone explain what this means? Is the 'potential energy' stored in batteries and how would this process be accomplished? Or is just fancy words for the hump backed topography?

That's all it is. Slow down going uphill, speed up going downhill.

 

[Maggot]

Anyone else noticed that since they've redeveloped Victoria tube station, you have to walk much further to get to the Victoria line from the train station? Before you just went down the escalator and you were at the platforms. Now you go down a different escalator and have to walk miles to get to the platforms. I think it might even be quicker to use the District and Circle line entrance, although I haven't actually timed it.

 

[story]

Anyone else noticed that since they've redeveloped Victoria tube station, you have to walk much further to get to the Victoria line from the train station? Before you just went down the escalator and you were at the platforms. Now you go down a different escalator and have to walk miles to get to the platforms. I think it might even be quicker to use the District and Circle line entrance, although I haven't actually timed it.

Definitely. It’s put a bit of a crimp in my Victoria Line love tbh

 

[Crispy]

Anyone else noticed that since they've redeveloped Victoria tube station, you have to walk much further to get to the Victoria line from the train station? Before you just went down the escalator and you were at the platforms. Now you go down a different escalator and have to walk miles to get to the platforms. I think it might even be quicker to use the District and Circle line entrance, although I haven't actually timed it.

It's on purpose to avoid overcrowding. There's now two sets of escalators, one at each end of the platforms. The ones at the mainline end are exit only, because big blobs of people arrive all at once and need to be ejected quickly without colliding with people coming the other way. The other end is entrance only, with long passages to spread out the crowds arriving on mainline trains. It's quite clever and works well. Even if your journey is longer, it's smoother and there's less chance of a dangerous crush.

 

[story]

It's on purpose to avoid overcrowding. There's now two sets of escalators, one at each end of the platforms. The ones at the mainline end are exit only, because big blobs of people arrive all at once and need to be ejected quickly without colliding with people coming the other way. The other end is entrance only, with long passages to spread out the crowds arriving on mainline trains. It's quite clever and works well. Even if your journey is longer, it's smoother and there's less chance of a dangerous crush.

I know this is true, and it certainly is clever and definitely makes it all go much smoother.

But my life long muscle memory still judders when I turn off the VL platform to move towards the C&D Lines.

I’m starting to get used to it but my internal journey planner hasn’t yet caught up with the need for extra time to change at Victoria.

 

[blossie33]

I've got a really half baked theory, but here goes: if you were commuting, perhaps the mass of people on the train absorbed the sound better than when it's not so busy?

I've tested two top of the range headphones and neither managed to block out the noise when it hit maximum intensity.

Yes, I definitely agree, it's noticeably less loud when the train is full.