Wednesday 31 October 2012

This update deserves a separate post

My wife, who works the early shift so she can pick our daughter up from day care (while I work the late shift so I can drop her off), texted me today about an hour and a half before I left work to warn me that there were severe delays on the trains heading out to Hampton Court, Richmond, Kingston and the surrounding areas in Surrey thanks to yet another person throwing themselves in front of a train, this time at (or near) Wimbledon.

Duly armed, I checked the TfL live travel news moments before leaving work, and was pleased to find that there were no reported delays to my journey.  Not even when being specific and using Journey Planner.  So, I set out to use the District Line to Wimbledon and the connecting train to Hampton Court, since the timings worked best that way.

Best laid plans and all that...

The District Line was delayed five minutes after being held at a red signal.  Fortunately, I'd factored in plenty of time to make my connection.  Unfortunately, it became apparent after much, much waiting, that there were not going to be any trains to Hampton Court in the foreseeable future.  There were no announcements or notices to this effect, it's just that none appeared on any of the boards.  Station staff were nowhere to be found either, when usually there are plenty of them loitering about the platforms at Wimbledon.

So, I got on the next train I could to Kingston instead.  From there, I took the bus. Which was a further three minutes late.  In all, I arrived at my destination 37 minutes late for another £92.50.  That's a total of £200 from TfL today.  Generous!

Oh, and here's the updated Tube Bingo card.

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