A lot to cover

Sorry for the lack of updates: work and life have been busy in the offline world.  Bonus for you is a bumper crop of updates!

Monday morning, the train from Hersham to Waterloo was a minute late.  The connecting Northern Line tube to Leicester Square (I had a long meeting in Covent Garden) was on time.  Coming back, the tube was a minute early, but this didn't affect the train I could take, which was on time.

Yesterday, I took the train from Norbiton to Waterloo (four minutes late) and the Bakerloo Line to Edgware Road (one minute late: six minutes late overall if I could have taken the tube I would have had the train been on time).  Going home, the first tube was too overcrowded to physically get onto, and the next a minute late (making me four minutes late overall.  The train was on time, and was the one I would have got onto anyway, so no charge for the earlier delay.

This morning, I took the same route in as yesterday.  The train was three minutes late, the tube four - seven minutes late overall if the train had been on time and I'd been able to catch an earlier tube.

So, since the last update, that's 13 minutes and £32.50

In the news recently, TfL boss 'Sir' Peter Hendy is busy gloating about his knighthood for managing to get TfL to work properly over the Olympic period (what about the rest of the time?).  Without even getting started on the cheapening of the knighthood institution (as if it needed more cheapening) by doling them out to people for doing a couple of weeks' good work, the gall of the man is incredible.  Describing his own rise from bus conductor 37 years ago, he glibly tells 'young Londoners' that he sees no reason why they can't accomplish as much as he has too.  I couldn't have put it better myself, though at least he had the decency to recognise it was other people's hard work that got him the knighthood, even if he didn't do the decent thing and refuse it for that reason.

If you're an app developer, or aspiring one, you could enter TfL's not-at-all-a-PR-stunt competition to develop an 'accessibility' app for the TfL network.  Of course, if TfL really cared about making the network more accessible, it would talk to the affected people, build up specs, and commission professionals to just do the work.

And finally, another story about TfL blighting the landscape to line its own pockets with nary a thought for locals.

Sold down the river

Two-minute delay from Edgware Road to Waterloo yesterday afternoon, which we'll forgive as it didn't cause me to miss the connecting train to Hersham.  That was four minutes late, though, so it'll cost £10.

This morning, the journey was from Hampton Court to Edgeware Road via Waterloo.  The train was a minute late arriving, causing me to take a connecting tube that was two minutes later than should otherwise have been possible, itself delayed by four minutes.  Six minutes delay overall for another £15.

Elsewhere in the Tubeverse, there's welcome news for Northern Line passengers: as early as next year, an improved signalling system will allow for a 20% capacity increase on what is the tube’s busiest line.  That equates to an extra 11,000 customers every hour.  I'll believe it when I see it, but let's pretend I'm cautiously optimistic for the time being.

And if you enjoy commuting in the bitter cold and wet, there are plans to let you better enjoy your weird hobby: 11 additional riverboat stops will adorn our River Thames by 2020.  A bit of a long wait, if it happens at all, but if you like the discomfort of the wet and cold anyway, what's a long wait, right?

That's it for the moment.

The journey so nice, I paid for it twice

UPDATE: Tube to Waterloo running two minutes late, but didn't affect my connecting train to Norbiton, so no charge.  However, that train was two minutes late arriving at Norbiton, so that'll be another fiver.


Sorry about the lack of update yesterday: I had a traffic nightmare, compounded by managing to leave my laptop bag at the child minder's and having to return for it.  Long story short, the way the trains would have then worked out for me meant it was likely I wouldn't have got to work before 11:00, so I elected to work from home instead, having mostly a series of conference calls to attend anyway...

The train from Hersham to Waterloo was seven minutes' delayed this morning, causing me to be late for a breakfast meeting at Soho House.  Thanks for that.  Incidentally, the connecting Northern Line train I had to take to Leicester Square was also a minute delayed.  Finally, the Bakerloo Line from Oxford Circus to Paddington after the meeting added another two-minute delay for a grand total of 10 minutes and £25.  Plus £6.80 for my second ticket: £31.80.

On top of this, the ticket machine at Hersham took my payment for a single to Waterloo and then proceeded to print on air - I received no ticket or receipt.  So when I got to Waterloo, I had to pay a second time for my delayed journey.