Engineers baffled by London Road traffic lights failure

London Road traffic lights still out London Road traffic lights still out

ENGINEERS have been left scratching their heads by a computer glitch causing the failure of the Wycombe Marsh Retail Park traffic lights.

The London Road signals have been malfunctioning for ten days now and workman are still baffled as to how to correct the problem.

Transport for Buckinghamshire said the lights are controlled by two computers – the main one which runs the day-to-day operations and a second safety system that cuts in should the first computer fail.

The safety system has been overriding the main programme, predominantly during the early hours, and shutting off the lights.

TfB’s Rosemary Bryant said engineers with 100 years of experience between them have performed root and branch repairs to the signals.

But it has so far proved unsuccessful and the experts are running out of ideas.

She said: “The lights have been there seven years and we’ve never had a major problem like this with them and now it’s every day.

“The workmen, who must have 100 years of experience between them, have been out there every night for ten nights and they still don’t know why it’s cutting out.

“They have replaced everything - wiring, the lot – but every time they go away thinking they’ve cracked it, the safety system cuts back in again.

“They are rebooting the computer system from scratch today. If that doesn’t work, I’m not sure what the next step will be.”

TfB said London Road and its junctions with the retail park, Micklefield Road and Cock Lane were being closely monitored on traffic cameras – but added the problem was not causing congestion.

Comments(16)

pastyboy says...
12:44pm Wed 24 Oct 12

The traffic flows better when they're not working!!

yog says...
12:44pm Wed 24 Oct 12

Traffic seems to be running a lot better without them.

The Nomad says...
12:57pm Wed 24 Oct 12

Given that it has occured for the 10 days, maybe human intervention has played a part

And yes traffic flows much better with them not working as the other traffic lights along the London Road (in both directions) allow for gaps in the traffic flow to pull out/in the retail park and Micklefield Road

Makes no difference for **** Lane as the cars just pull out anyway regardless of the traffic light colour

Stalemate says...
1:20pm Wed 24 Oct 12

Are you sure that guy on the ladder is an engineer and not a peeping tom, as there are a couple of tarts working in those apartments :-0

regis says...
1:41pm Wed 24 Oct 12

why not just disconnect the safety system?!

SJ_CFC says...
2:49pm Wed 24 Oct 12

If the computers are playing up, why do we have engineers working on the traffic lights? Should they not be working on fixing the computers?

And may be it is a "divine signal" that we don't need traffic lights at that junction. Bring back the round-about !!!

Mr Totterdge Hill says...
4:07pm Wed 24 Oct 12

SJ_CFC wrote:
If the computers are playing up, why do we have engineers working on the traffic lights? Should they not be working on fixing the computers?

And may be it is a "divine signal" that we don't need traffic lights at that junction. Bring back the round-about !!!
If only!

readerabc says...
4:58pm Wed 24 Oct 12

went that way today- traffic flowing beautifully - people actually slow down and check rather than assuming they have right of way

only hold up was at next set of working lights!!

save money - get rid of them and install a roundabout....

miccles says...
5:20pm Wed 24 Oct 12

“The workmen, who must have 100 years of experience between them, have been out there every night for ten nights and they still don’t know why it’s cutting out."

So are we supposed to feel sorry for these workmen "who have 100 years of experience between them"??

I thought that this was their job, and what we pay them for.
My boss doesn't praise me everytime i do a job,

shaky2 says...
8:10pm Wed 24 Oct 12

Will they get the message that all these lights are an absolute pain if the traffic flow is better now without them just as the case used to be before these dam lights where installed, no this is a to simple solution. The London Road is a complete mess of lights that are not needed and don't even start me on the bus lane

shaky2 says...
8:14pm Wed 24 Oct 12

SJ_CFC wrote:
If the computers are playing up, why do we have engineers working on the traffic lights? Should they not be working on fixing the computers?

And may be it is a "divine signal" that we don't need traffic lights at that junction. Bring back the round-about !!!
well said let's start a bring back the roundabout campaign I try not to use the Retail park as it takes so long to get out of the place because of these lights

shaky2 says...
8:25pm Wed 24 Oct 12

100 years of experience between them so if there are 100 men working on this job that means they each have 1 year experience no wonder they can't fix it

BOOKERite says...
8:31pm Wed 24 Oct 12

Bring back the roundabouts along the whole stretch of the London Road. That will save the taxpayer's cash on useless engineers.

YorksDavey says...
9:08pm Wed 24 Oct 12

Sadly now they've changed the junction, it's not big enough for a roundabout of suitable size for the number of lanes that exist. A non starter that idea, as nice as it would be!

loudwaterlad says...
9:21am Thu 25 Oct 12

I'm glad to see that after I report the lights as being out (three times now) the police send a few police/traffic wardens (NOT) to direct the traffic.

Garrob says...
11:36am Thu 25 Oct 12

I go through there around 6am and the lights are out (so presumably out all night) but in the evening rush hour they are up and running. Surely the two times of day run different patterns. Whenever I used to go through late at night (to turn into Micklefield Rd) the lights would be triggered by running over the sensors but during the day and in rush hour they would be timed. I just wonder if the road sensors are screwing up the control system.

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