Transport in London is shit

Overground has been punctual whenever I've used it, which has only been in extremis because the thousands of stops make it too damn slow and infrequent even if it's on time.

!!!!!!

- 24-hour tube at the weekends YAY
- every ticket office to shut and 750 jobs cut BOO

so sly to announce both in the same package

wtf

that is amazing news about the weekend. thought i would never see the day!

horrible news about the ticket windows though, fuck. this means that the lit-up "tickets and assistance" windows will be darkened forever??

i just had to use one this morning actually; i topped up online before i left the house and the turnstile said "PLEASE SEEK ASSISTANCE" so i went to the window and the guy asked when i did the online top-up; "a half hour ago, i guess?" i answered and he was like "oh mate, it takes like 24 hours to register the top-up, i don't know why there's no message on the website to that effect, we get tons of confusion about that"

i for one look forward to the tube being like the new year's eve tube every fucking weekend

also love the line "more tube station staff will be visible" when what it means is "tube staff will have to hang out in the ticket hall to run people through using the machines because somehow the human dignity of being allowed to sit at a desk behind a window is too much for them"

tube staff roaming randomly in stations is about the most idiotic idea i've ever heard

Had a discussion with a station attendant about this very subject early last summer. You think we're cross? How on Earth are they going to swing this at a busy interchange like Holborn, with all the gormless tourists and commuters pouring in all day, every day, I do not know - but I am so happy that I'll be able to go East without having Cinderella issues.

was in a station a few weeks back and all the ticket machines had crashed but friend needed to clear oyster card defecit to travel anywhere else. member of staff at kiosk meant this could be done quickly and easily and hard to see a good solution without one - just go to next station in the hope that their ticket machines were working? no mate

gormless tourists

This being a substantial spanner in the works

Suggest basic training as part of passport control entry to uk: standing on the right on escalators, spatial awareness reminders if you're wearing a backpack etc

There's no avoiding them at Holborn. Ever. Standing two abreast on the escalator, stopping dead in front of the barriers as if they're about to jump through the looking-glass, dithering in transfers so that I narrowly miss my own connections, asking directions to the British Museum when it is one block to the west....

xp ARRRRGH RUCKSACKS ON FUCKSTICKS

haha you london types

Yeah I use Holborn daily and it's a nightmare, people crowding out the entrance to the platform in a huge group or due to baggage is another classic. Some days you see it and think "oh shit, obv major delays" then five metres to the right or left the platform is totally clear, once you've fought your way out.

Suggest basic training as part of passport control entry to uk: standing on the right on escalators, spatial awareness reminders if you're wearing a backpack etc

"don't just stop walking the minute you get on the platform as if there aren't hundreds of people behind you" is a pretty major one imho

People stepping off an escalator and just standing there while dozens of people slam into the back of them.

Said this a million times but people who stop walking on the escalator when it goes flat... why? I just don't understand this widespread habit.

I can understand that people might want to step off the escalator with their dominant foot, especially on those escalators with the flat bit at the end, but why not learn to use your non-dominant foot?

Humans have bilateral symmetry, people, use it!

^^^ T shirt slogan for the taking there, to be sold in tourist shops on Oxford Street instead of those endless 'Keep Calm & Buy More Tourist Tat" things.

people stopping walking on the escalator as it starts to flatten generally happens because the people worry that they'll get the depth of the stair wrong as it narrows imo

hence they dither

I guess if someone is in heels or whatever, but I am sure men do this plenty too.

Also they kind of stop even after it's completely flat...

If I slow down near the top of the escalator, I always cut over to the right and join the folks in le standing.

mother of god

This is hilariously awful.

The announcements make it sound like the end times have happened somewhere past Clapham, now everyone's dead and only the robots are left to apologise for the inconvenience caused.

South East London is in full transport apocalypse, amazing I only missed 5mins of the football

what's going on then? surprised i haven't seen mention of it on twitter, maybe everybody's dead.

NE was pretty bad as well, Hackney totally congested, took me 2hrs to travel 6 miles home

There was a fire at London bridge signal house, which closed it. Then Victoria closed because of the crowds. Then Overground had a signal failure at Willesden. Only needed snow, tbh.

Some good pix of pissed-off London bridgers on twitter

It was actually only mildly worse than when I choose (rather than being forced) to take the Tube/bus home - i.e., letting multiple Northern Line trains go at CX or Kennington as they're packed. Bus from Brixton was pretty bad too.

Poor sods heading for Kent or Sussex didn't have the luxury of other options though.

http://usvsth3m.com/post/74285062011/you-wont-believe-why-the-victoria-line-is-currently

?!

this must be a viral for something, right?

well, if I need any fast-drying cement, that's definitely going to be my brand

good grief

Please tell me this is a fucking joke. (I did wonder why the busses were insanely full tonight)

at first i was outraged at this but actually it's kind of a touch to be able to attach my consequent absence to a ~news incident~

they dumped sugar into the mix, slowed the drying process

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2014-01-24/victoria-line-cement-leak-could-have-been-far-worse/

48.
Ian Pratley
3 Hours ago

Most people do not buy tickets at the offices so close then
I have been made redundant twice
If it was up to the unions we still have stream trains

Report this comment (Comment number 48)

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Surprised that that guy failed to make himself indispensable.

its like a three act play in one shitty internet comment

I can think of places in Devon which could do with "stream trains" right now.

We live in the 21st century this is why we introduced a new bus that took 2 people to operate rather than 1 amirite

Moreover, one where the driver shouts at passengers for still getting on, looking at the destination window, not reading her mind and therefore not knowing that she was going to terminate the bus AT THIS STOP.

When the tube is down we rely on a coherent and enhanced (i.e. more buses) bus system to get us to and from work. Not a fleet of empty buses careering past packed bus stops saying "Not in Service" or randomly terminating services.

But, hey, the bus companies aren't in it for the passengers, they're in it for shareholder pension funds.

Can the 40m savings be achieved through encouraging more strikes and therefore wage savings?

It was a bit much for the overground railway to fucking screw up yesterday as well

Is the strike going on today, or no? I am p much pro-strike and pro-union but I do need to take busses today and need to know if I'll have to leave extra transport time?

Yes, it's still going on.

Thanks! This wouldn't be so difficult if I weren't still hobbling about with a cane, but... needs must be.