Goodness me!

A lot of people were waiting for this post, weren't they?  At least that's what my stats show.  I was at a meeting from 8 a.m. until now, but I hadn't forgotten about you!  Nor have I (yet) entered into Fatherhood squared.

So: on to the updates!  Tube was on time yesterday afternoon, taking me neatly to Waterloo in time to catch my connection to Hersham.  This, however, was three minutes late - all within Zones 1-6, so that's £7.50.

This morning, the train from Hersham was a minute late arriving in Waterloo, despite being a minute early to leave Hersham.  This means, even though I can only charge TfL for the one minute late I was, TfL actually cost that service two minutes once it entered the TfL network.  Nice.

The connecting tube was delayed by nine minutes, owing to a fire alert at some station or other.  It sounded like they said Queens Park, but that's not on the Bakerloo Line, is it?  Well, go figure.  All I know is I spent a godly amount of time sitting in tunnels listening to semi-inaudible announcements about fires.  That's three strikes on the Tube Bingo card to add to the strike on non-explanations I've received all week.  Still no Bingo in the frame though.  I guess the £30 Signal Failure's earned since last night will have to be compensation enough.

What else is on today's fab menu?  As part of its continuing plan to suck all the joy out of the universe, TfL's line closures will disappoint fans of The xx.  The band has had to reschedule and relocate its upcoming gig because your friendly evil London transport Czars have made it next to impossible to get to or from the venue.  If only Justin Bieber had thought to blame his recent lateness on tube delays, perhaps he wouldn't have pissed off so many of his fans!  Or, more accurately perhaps, their parents.

Also in the news, remember that satisfaction poll for the cable cars that TfL has been promoting selected snippets of but refusing to share in its entirety?  It cost £150,000.  This is, apparently, equivalent to what TfL would have earned from 35,107 full-price fares on the gigantic folly fairground attraction beloved transport service.

And speaking of satisfaction surveys, no-one likes the Boris Bikes anymore after TfL doubled the price.  (OK, I admit 'no-one' was an exaggeration.)