Transport in London is shit

I walked onto some kind of crazy futuristic Victoria Line train the other day. The upholstery was electric blue.

On the TfL homepage, for some strange reason:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvfq_maaVig

3 hours 40 mins to get into work today, a new record

Walked to work. 45 mins. Had a race with the 271 bus on the way, beat the fucker by miles.

All the 38s started kicking everyone off at Angel "because the bus is running late - it's OK there are 3 more along in a minute" which are all full and don't stop, and now there are 4 bus loads of people waiting to get on one. WTF TFL.

Then it turned out the Victoria line had started running again so got a bus to Kings Cross and managed to get in, but really I should've just stayed in bed til 10am, I'd have got to work at the same time.

I saw the (still) traffic on the road outside my flat, and decided to walk to work instead (I've been doing this occasionally over the last few weeks anyway).

What amused me was the bunch of people waiting at the stop at the top of Rosebery avenue waiting for the 19/38, and then walking past all the 19&38 buses turning around a couple of minutes down the road. I wonder how long those people waited to get on a bus (when they would have a seat just by walking to the next stop).

Oh and seeing business men at the back of the Thames Clippers taking photos on their phones of the view along the river on their way to work.

Er, that's where I got kicked off the 38, you know when buses turn around they are going in the opposite direction?

Specific examples of ticket office reductions in opening hours here.

(ie what they're striking about, amongst other things).

I tend to just go through the open gates if I can't get a ticket and there's no one around and leave my 'honest face' (evasive and full of shifty cunning) to do the talking at the other end, but I guess there are those who don't have my brazen chutzpah, and will decide not to travel (tourists? OAPs?)

OAPs travel for free anyway, innit?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11336395

seats look uncomfortable and i don't like the woodchip colourscheme.

OAPs travel for free anyway, innit?

Pope should be OK today then

confused about how the hop-on-hop-off thing works if the doors will be closed..

and what the hell a "community police officer" has to do with it

if there is a community support officer on the bus, doing the job of a bus conductor for free, then the doors will be open

if there is not, the doors will be closed

?

so the doors will be closed.

Open back on the old Routemasters was horrific in bad weather if you happened to be near the back of the bus.

Traansport in London is ludicrously great 98.6% of the time, in my experience, and people who whinge should just appreciate how great they have it almost the entire year, probably

Compared to Sydney, you're right sic!

I've become so used to never, ever waiting for a tube I can't imagine going back to New York where a 6-7 minute wait is standard. It would enrage me.

You've never waited that long for a Tube in London?!

You clearly do not travel on the Victoria Line!

Maybe late at night I've waited for 6 minutes?

I live on the Central Line. People who live on the Hammersmith and City Line deserve everything they get imo

Vicky Line is pretty regular in my experience, it's just a matter of being able to squeeze onto the fucking trains.

Regular? You mean except for that thing it does *every day* where it just mysteriously stops working for 10 minutes at a time, often just during or just after rush hour, and not only do all the trains just *sit there* for that time, but it screws up the schedule so that there is "congestion in Brixton" for the next 4 hours and you have to sit in a tunnel outside Stockwell for ages waiting for a platform?

This has been happening at least two or three times a week for the past year.

ime the northern line is the absolute worst for inexplicable 8-10 min waits, presumably because of the camden bottleneck (just DYNAMITE CAMDEN IN ITS ENTIRETY, so many problems solved)

tho the worst thing about the tube is how they STILL apparently don't expect people to travel around at the weekend - weekend works have been fucking up the network for as long as i've lived in london, are the much-vaunted "improvements" ever going to actually materialise?

I just wonder whether the Victoria line's recent upgrade to get trains running far more frequently has actually made the delays much worse. If a train gets stuck (as happened the other day) you've got that many more trains stuck in the tunnels.

xpost Christ yes, northern line hell, bomb camden, absolutely.

camden bottleneck is a bottleneck only because it looks like a bottleneck on the map.

but lol @ tracer trolling

Used the overground from Stratford the other day, that's a lovely little line

i only use the tube maybe twice a week these days and most times on the vicky line i mean when it is running perfectly it's great but when something happens and you're stuck between finsbury park and seven sisters for 20 minutes when you're already late it's a little ironic don't you think.

and something happens maybe one time in five in my experience.

also weekend service is super fun. it's like an orienteering trip every time

I live on the Northern Line so I'm pretty much used to it. Worst is when you have like three Bank trains in a row and you need to go to Charing X.

I use the Victoria line 5 days a week, 10 journeys total - which means I get stuck at least twice a week.

That's when they haven't closed Oxford St Station due to "overcrowding" which happens at least once a week for me.

i've lived on the northern line all my life and sometimes i feel personally hurt when people bitch about it. it is not really that bad! the inexplicable 8-10 minute waits happen way less often these days!

3 bank trains when you want a charing x and vice versa is the story of my life though.

also weekend service is super fun. it's like an orienteering trip every time

― HOOS' THE BOSS (ken c), Friday, September 17, 2010 2:42 PM (9 minutes ago)

I don't use the tube anymore but I had to the other day, had horrible flashbacks of when I had to change at Holborn for the Central Line every workday morning

Ever tried to get from Dalston to Tufnell Park when the overland is down? You either need a master's degree in City Navigation, or to wait for the possibly fiction rail replacement bus. The other weekend I ended up walking the whole way.

Holborn interchange from Piccadilly to the Central line (or vice versa?) is a killer. there's the bit where you go down steps, then up AGAIN before going back down to the platform. you should never ever ever have to go back up steps at any point. ever.

I used to live in Tufnell Park, so yes I am familiar with that journey. It's not that far to walk, really. (xp)

Anyone who travels across London at the weekend without actually planning their journey properly is a fool. This also applies to people who go into South London without checking overground train times and then moan about having to wait for 20mins.

there's the bit where you go down steps, then up AGAIN before going back down to the platform

the horror! the horror!

A few months ago I made the mistake of changing to the Central line from the District line at Bank/Monument. Crazy.

Anyone who travels across London at the weekend without actually planning their journey properly is a fool.

Sometimes you don't wake up where you were planning to though.

Then you should be happy!

I think that Lex is actually OTM and planning a trip across town at the weekend should not *have* to require the planning structure of launching the D-Day Offensive.

Anyone who travels across London at the weekend without actually planning their journey properly is a fool.

this is true, but a) sometimes this doesn't help anyway, b) i don't really feel as though this is a remotely ideal state of affairs, c) SOMETIMES PEOPLE RUN LATE (and yeah, what chap said re: unexpected wakenings)

This also applies to people who go into South London without checking overground train times and then moan about having to wait for 20mins.

gonna have to do this tonight :/

Getting to Peckham from North London isn't even difficult!

it may not be difficult but it is lonnnnnng. also, london bridge is some kind of exclave of hell.

dalston to tufnell park = i end up walking it about half the time, esp if it's stupid o'clock at night and i'm going to have to walk from the holloway road at the end anyway.