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Okay, so I left the house this morning, and got to Ealing Broadway to discover that the Central Line had a signal failure in central London and so was running a delayed service. They weren’t kidding – the first tube out was due to leave 15 minutes later and was only going as far as North Acton (2 stops along the line)
I put my usual “central line problems” plan into affect and went to join the huddle of people waiting for the mainline train service into Paddington. Oh joy! There were delays here too. The first train that arrived was already pretty full and only a handful of people managed to get on it. I joined the huddle determined to get on the next one. I did, and stood in the area near the doors – an area of around 18 square feet – with about 18 other people. Cosy! (I wonder whether there are any EU directives for transporting people, I know there are for transportng livestock).
After a few stops along the short journey we arrived at Paddington and I followed the herd down to the Underground only to discover that the Circle line also had delays and an approximate 15 minute wait (ever felt like someone doesn’t want you to get in to work?). I was pretty fed up of hearing about delays by this stage so decided to try my luck on the Hammersmith and City line – this involved walking pretty much the length of Paddington just to get to the ticket barrier which wouldn’t let me through (the ticket barriers all record where you’ve been and I guess that with all my comings and goings this morning it had decided something suspicious was going on). Fortunately there was a London Underground guy around who let me through just in time to get on a tube heading East to Farringdon.
There were no further delays to my journey, but unsurprisingly the tube was again very full. I arrived at work fairly exhausted already, and I can’t help wondering why the “privilege” of being delayed and crushed costs me £86.10 per month.
