Overground, underground

Despite leaving Paddington a minute late last night, my Bakerloo Line train to Waterloo arrived a minute early, so I had no difficulties catching my intended fast train connection to Hersham.  Unfortunately, this connection was delayed by five minutes owing to a 'points failure'.  I didn't catch where this was and so, feeling magnanimous, I've decided to give TfL the benefit of the doubt and assume it happened outside of Zones 1-6.  No charge, therefore.

This morning's train from Hersham to Waterloo was a minute late (definitely accrued within TfL's area of control), and the connecting tube was three minutes late arriving in Paddington.  Plus the two minute Paddington Penalty, of course, making a total of five minutes and £12.50 to add to the tally.

Meanwhile, in the rest of London, a head-on tube collision on the Northern Line was narrowly avoided, and TfL is under pressure to answer the questions 'WTF happened?' and 'How are you going to prevent something like this from happening again?'  Labour London Assembly Transport spokeswoman Val Shawcross has praised the actions of 'a' train driver in averting disaster.  Presumably, a head-on collision involves two trains, though, so I don't know why the other train driver wasn't also praised, since I imagine he didn't just plough on as the collision wouldn't have been avoided then either...

TfL's also looking into turning some major roads into overground tunnels so that residences and businesses can be built on top of them - space always being at a premium in London.  There seem to be no plans to do this anywhere near Wimbledon, however, so mine is the only Wombles joke we'll allow.

Image credit: tidybag.co.uk

Claims for accidents on the London Underground have reached £2.5m in the last four years, according to The Telegraph.  Though they don't come outright and say it (or, rather, write it), this seems to be a new record.  Obviously, domestic terrorist Bob Crow was quick to point out that if only TfL always gave in to his and his trade union's frequent and outrageous demands, this would never have happened.

And finally, speaking of strikes, Bob Crow's corralled RMT members who work on the Boris Bike scheme to strike too.  Is there any one of my readers who cares less than me, I wonder?

Sunny evenings, strikes, and sycling

Made a journey on Friday after all in the end - went out to Clapham Junction for a friend's birthday celebrations in a lovely beer garden just off the beaten track.  Everyone in the party except me, it seems, suffered from hay fever, so I'm not quite sure why a flowery beer garden was chosen, but I certainly appreciated it, and have never in my life seen such a worthy supply of tissues and antihistamines.  Nice.

The journey in, however, was a minute delayed, due to sitting outside of Clapham Junction station for a platform to become clear (at least, I assume that's why - obviously no explanation was given).  There was also a minute's delay coming back, and I have no idea what caused that one.  Two minutes and £5.

This morning, I had another jaunt to the Passport Office.  The train arrived at Vauxhall a minute early, though it didn't let me catch an earlier tube from there to Victoria.  The tube, incidentally, was one minute late for another £2.50.  Following my (this time successful) appointment, the tube from Victoria to Paddington was two minutes late (and horrifically overcrowded).  £5.

So, in total that makes five minutes £12.50.

Also in the news today is yet another strike threat from the RMT.  This time, it's about the plans to axe around 100 'guard' jobs from certain overground trains.  Everyone's favourite shit-stirrer Bob Crow was typically melodramatic:

"The news that millions of passengers are to be put at risk through plans to throw guards of [sic] London Overground trains on north London routes will send shockwaves through transport services."

And finally, if you live in Kensington & Chelsea, expect significant transport problems, as well as your car being towed if you dare to park along the route of a bicycle race in the borough.  Because bike races are more important than the convenience of borough residents or those who need to travel through the borough.  At least, according to our beloved floppy-haired leader Boris Johnson.

What is it with pretending everything's hunky-dory?

UPDATE: a minute's delay on the Bakerloo Line to Waterloo coming home fortunately didn't cause me to miss my connecting train.  Sadly, that train was eight minutes late by the end of the journey (no explanation), so that's another £20.

Elsewhere in the wacky world of TfL, there's another strike a-brewin': cleaners and security staff this time on the DLR.  Pay and benefits squabble.  I've written about this before, and to be honest cleanliness is one thing I don't really have a problem with on the network, so I quite support this action, even if it does involve the odious Bob Crow...

Smart move to join it up to the security staff action: that's something I think TfL will find a little trouble ignoring, even if it is criminally irresponsible, like a police strike.



Yet again, no excuses or apologies offered: a 12-minute delay on the train into Waterloo this morning which, although the connecting Bakerloo tube was on time, lengthened to a 14-minute total delay because of the altered connection timings caused by that initial delay.  That's £35, but it would be nice to know why my journey is so significantly delayed (bear in mind that portion of the commute is supposedly a 36-minute stretch, so 14 minutes' delay is pretty spectacular).  And would an apology be too much to ask for?  Still, I guess no apology is better than a nakedly disinterested and insincere one...

Elsewhere on the TfL network, if you're a north Londoner, don't rely on taking the buses as there'll be a 24-hour strike over - what else? - pay.  I guess a £500 bonus simply for doing your job for two weeks is not enough to cut it these days, what with Christmas just 'round the corner!  And in case any bus drivers are reading this and thinking of complaining because (a) 'everyone else' got a bonus (I didn't, neither did millions of other Britons who were also potentially facing severe disruption, and those that did get one, should have) and (b) it was soooooooooo busy those two weeks, with X million extra passengers and Y million new trains, blah, blah, blah.  So you had a heavy two weeks at work?  Get over it you pathetic children: it happens.

Meanwhile, if you've bought an eco-friendly car and are enjoying congestion charge-free benefits, get set to lose them.  You've not got long to register your disapproval of this either.

I'm back!

UPDATE: staggeringly good service from TfL tonight (!): I was the victim of a concerted effort to block the journey home.

• The Bakerloo Line was suffering delays due to a person taken ill at Maida Vale
• The Circle Line was suspended Westbound from Paddington owing to an earlier signal Failure
• The District Line was also suffering minor delays for some unexplained reason (but, I'm guessing to do with the Circle Line's woes given that they seem to share the same track in a lot of the place, though why A Circle can be suspended on a track and a District not on the same track is beyond me - TfL logic, I guess, though if John would care to explain I'd honestly be very interested)

So, District Line's my best bet, right?  Turns out 'minor delays' mean 10 minutes late arriving at Paddington and 14 minutes late by the time we get to Wimbledon for the connecting train (extra delay caused by being held at a red Signal outside Waterloo).  Too late for it.  Had to wait for the next one.  This one more or less ran on time.  "Wait!" I hear you say, "how can something be more or less on time?  It's either on time or it isn't!"  OK, then, it wasn't: it was a minute late.  Total delay of 31 minutes over expected arrival time for a grand total of £77.50.

That's one hell of a journey as far as Tube Bingo is concerned, as you can plainly see!

A total of five minutes' delay this morning, gained entirely on the train journey to Waterloo, and due to "slippery rail conditions" again.  I wonder if this will become the favoured excuse this winter?  It's even quite mild today, and only a little rainy.  Wouldn't have thought that was anything out of the ordinary for an overground train in the UK, but apparently planning for weather wasn't part of the system's construction.  Shame, really.

That's just £12.50 for now, but I expect it'll rise on the journey home tonight!

In other news, look forward to a 24-hour strike this Friday.  I wonder if you'll all be given full refunds for the day's travel (I'll be working from home)?  That would seem fair, so I doubt it.