Stand clear of the doors please

Another classic commute courtesy of TfL. 

The train from Hampton Court to Wimbledon was delayed by a minute, which would have cause me to miss the connecting tube to Edgware Road (note: if you read my last post on tube stations and life expectancy, you'll see I've decided to live dangerously...) but for the fact that some 'earlier signal failures' - note the plural! - meant that the 07:45 didn't depart until 08:01, a full 16 minutes late.

Despite further delays due to... wait for it... defective doors on our train, we managed to claw back three minutes and arrive at my final destination 'only' 13 minutes late for £32.50.

Tonight on Signal Failure: will our intrepid hero get home in reasonable time, or will he fall foul of TfL's dastardly inconsistency?  PLUS: watch out for an upload of this week's Tube Bingo card.  Will I be one of this week's lucky winners?  Stay tuned...

Top of the morning, bottomed out by evening (sorry!)

Well, there's a first: TfL was the best part of my morning this a.m.  Some kind of accident on Hampton Court Road delayed me in the toddler drop-off run so that I missed my train.  Half an hour to wait for the next one, which ran smoothly enough for me to hit my connection and get to work without a glitch (so still half an hour late, but not TfL's fault).

Guess they wanted to make up for last night's fiasco.  I wonder if they can keep it up for a perfect score today?  Still, kudos to TfL for a pleasant commute.


UPDATE: normal service has been resumed.  TfL was unable to keep up the good work, which appears to have been a fluke.  This time on my journey home, the train to take me from Wimbledon to Hampton Court arrived 17 minutes late.  Seventeen minutes.  The explanation offered for this was more-or-less inaudible, but I made out something to do with an earlier fault or suspension, so I've ticked off the Tube Bingo card (below) accordingly.

 NB: the tube from Edgware Road to Wimbledon was also delayed, owing to being held at a couple of red signals, but owing to the longer delay of the connecting train, this didn't matter in the end.  You see?  With every cloud, TfL provides the silver lining.

Speaking of silver linings, another one courtesy of TfL is that, if you are unsure what to do with yourself this weekend, the pressure is off: now the Olympics and Paralympics are over, widespread weekend line closures are back.  So now you can't do anything this weekend.  Enjoy!


UPDATE 2: I forgot the charge for those 17 minutes: £42.50.