The weekend is just the beginning

Just a two minute delay caused by the snow this morning on the Hersham to Waterloo journey, which is fairly impressive.  Especially when you consider the Bakerloo Line had a one minute delay from Waterloo to Edgware Road, which is fully half that of South West Trains.  And the tube's underground!  Though to be fair, the delay there was attributed to 'earlier signalling problems'...

Less impressive was the coda to last week's experiences, which saw me go to a party in Clapham Junction on Saturday night (thanks Time and Kate: it was awesome!) and receive a delay coming home of exactly two hours, also owing to signalling problems (at the Hampton Court junction, for those who care).  It wasn't a total bust, of course, because there was a nice big pool of congealed vomit in my carriage too.  Lovely.

So, altogether, I make that a delay of 123 minutes for another £307.50

Interestingly, Thisiscroyden reports that TfL is reporting no disruption on bu routes, whilst simultaneously blaming snow for the slow running of services, which as fine an example of doublethink as I've seen for a go while.

Also interesting is that TfL apparently collected around £251m more in fares than they had forecast in the last two years (though I don't know the source for this claim and can't vouch for its veracity, coming as it does from a politician).

That ought to do it for now.  May your journeys home not be delayed.  But I won't be holding my breath.

Poor show, TfL!

 An interesting journey home tonight to say the least.  Somehow, I'm always buoyed up when TfL performs as it says it will or, like this morning, even better.  Probably because it's so rare.  And that's probably why I can't shake optimism that things might be about to get better.  But tat optimism is always ill-founded, and I'm glad I didn't make my briefly-considered pledge to forgive TfL any delays for the next 24 hours.

It's only Tuesday evening: surely this week's card will be a winner!

So, then, as you can see from the updated Tube Bingo card, it's been an eventful evening.  I took the District Line from Edgware Road to Wimbledon, which arrived with a delay of six minutes, owing to two excuses: the first was a slow moving train in front of us, the second its causing overcrowding of the platforms at Wimbledon.
This didn't matter, as I'd factored on getting the 18:52 train from there to Hampton Court, due to arrive at its final destination at 19:14 (which is what Journey Planner still tells me, insultingly enough).

I actually got to Hampton Court at 19:43 for a 29-minute delay and £72.50.  But this journey itself was exciting.  And by 'exciting', I mean infuriating.  After a good 15 minutes or so waiting on the platform at Wimbledon, TfL finally deemed it worth announcing that there weren't going to be any trains to Hampton Court for the foreseeable future, and that I should board the next train to Guildford, changing at Surbiton.  No explanation was offered for this turn of events.

On the train to Guildford, we were told there had been/were signalling problems at Waterloo, leading to fewer trains leaving there at the present time.  This meant that the trains that were running were heavily overcrowded.  And all we selfish sardines were leaning on the doors, causing further delays.  So, a couple more excuses for the card.  All I need now is the relatively common 'signal failure' excuse for which this blog is named, and I can scare my carriage by shouting 'BINGO!' at the top of my voice.  I realise this might compromise my identity if one of you happens to be on that carriage.  Don't be scared, though.