10 - 1 = 10

Despite arriving at Edgware Road a minute late, the Bakerloo Line made it to Waterloo on time, so that I was able to catch my connecting train home to Hersham last night.  This too ran beautifully to time.  Kudos.

The train from Hersham to Waterloo this morning, however, was 10 minutes late - all 10 of those minutes being accrued within TfL's jurisdiction.  Less kudos. 

To be fair, the Bakerloo Line did its best to make up for this, depositing me a minute earlier than advertised at Edgware Road.  Nonetheless, this was still 10 minutes later than I should have arrived if I'd been able to take the tube I would have got had my train been on time in the first place.  That's another £25.

Now for other things.

The Daily Mail is running a story about the Oysterlet, and ill-conceived idea for combining fashion and travel around the capital in the form of an ugly, clunky bracelet.  It's hard to know where to start with what's wrong with this story and concept, but I'll try:

1. TfL is phasing Oyster out, so these things have a very limited shelf-life
2. They cost £70, which is outrageous: the Oyster card is nowhere near this
3. You still have to take them off to touch them to the Oyster readers, so precious little/no time is saved by owning one
4. They're ugly (see below)
5. Even if you don't agree that they're ugly, they're not 'jewellery'

At last, a clunky and cumbersome eyesore with no benefits!
Image credit: Oysterlet

Finally, roll on driverless trains!  Bob Crowe may not like the idea, but it seems plenty of us think we could do without at least a few of the tube's obnoxious drivers.  We've got complaints for smoking, swearing, being patronising, making inappropriate comments to individual passengers, texting, abandoning trains altogether, and making strange noises(!).

In the interests of balance, I should say that I've personally also had some drivers that made me smile.  On from a cold February day (much like this one) a few years ago springs to mind, when the driver informed everyone there were only 321 days till Christmas.

What are your best and worst experiences of tube driver behaviour?