The Failing London Tube system - why reform will come soon

The London tube network is falling apart at the seams.

Everyday most of the workers in London can see the trains becoming too crowded, the delays becoming more frequent, disruptive and for spurious reasons like leaves on tracks. Using the network every day I can only foresee a catastrophic accident occurring which will bring this commuter mouse trap its day of reckoning.

The unions will use such an event as a way to exert even more power, hiring more of their staff to fulfill non-roles.

Its time to get serious about automation on the tube service. Other signalling systems around the world can fit twice the number of trains into a one hour window. Driverless carriages will become the norm because the cost of drivers is rising too fast. The DLR works perfectly fine with this system, the tube will too. If something is trapped in the door, the train won't run, this has been an automatic safety feature since automatic doors, they rarely require human intervention. Platform staff can handle other issues.

The Olympics will be the catalyst for these future improvements. It will finally show the world that the tube system is well beyond capacity and any major breakdown or accident will require herculean man management and planning to prevent world wide coverage of London Transport failure. [see update below]

Part of its failure is due to its overriding success. More and more people are using the tube system for shorter journeys  We need to remedy this with more than just the bike system ("Boris Bikes"). We need to allow commuters the ability to have small electric transport that can carry them through London quickly and safely without pedal power. I think the YikeBike is ideal for this purpose. A small bike that can be folded and fit into a ruck sack which weighs 10kg! Its the best idea I've seen, unfortunately our laws in the UK do not permit this or the Segway to be driven on public fairways because they do not have pedals! Eventually the government will have no other choice as the tube network will reach capacity faster than they can build more track or homes. Neither of which they have been very proficient at in the last two decades.

Its a shame people don't launch preventative change until there is an incident which damages members of the public. What ever happened to long term planning?

Update: Having attended a few events at the Olympics I have to admit I was wrong. Although it was full to capacity the Tube service did an admirable job preventing a transport disaster. Although, this was achieved by what looked like a trebling of staff and a assertive campaign to prevent normal commuters coming to work with horror stories of terrible congestions.