...is as always crystal clear when it comes to TFL.
Just as I got to Holborn station last night they shut the gates and started screaming. I had no idea what he or she was talking about so inquisitively minded as I am I ask the rude man with a walkie-talkie much to his delight.
Iit was overcrowding – I’m sure I have written a post about this overcrowding phenomena before so will leave it alone for now, it deserve a whole post on its own.
The reasons for the station closure the suddenly changed - it wasn’t overcrowding at all, in fact it was a faulty train in the tunnel between marble arch and oxford circus on the eastbound central line.
This conversation then followed:
TFL Lady: since there are no trains running on the eastbound central line we have closed the station for safety reasons because if you tell people they can’t go down
the eastbound platform that’s the platform they will go down to so for safety reasons we have to close the station.
Me (and a few others): So what’s wrong with the Piccadilly Line?
TFL Lady: There is nothing wrong with the Piccadilly Line.
Me (and a few others): So why can’t we use it?
TFL Lady: Because there is a broken down train between Marble Arch and Oxford Circus eastbound on the Central Line.
Puzzled looks being exchanged.
Me (alone): So if there is nothing wrong with the line I would like to get on it and go home, I pay a lot of money to get on it and go home.
TFL Lady: Yes but you pay a lot of money to get home safely.
Me (alone): I rather get home ON TIME.
A few things about this conversation struck me as odd apart from the obviously strange behaviour of TFL’s safety procedures, the lady actually said “if you tell people not to go down to the eastbound platform you sure as hell get everyone going down to the eastbound platform”. This statement makes me think TFL might have grossly misunderstood the reasons why people use their lovely service – we don’t use it for some kind of recreational purposes, we use it to get from A to B. Only people who need to go east from Holborn on the central line would in fact head that way. If they then realise there are no trains stopping there they will leave to find another way to get to B. As simple as that. All they would have to do is place that one rude person with a walkie-talkie in the entrance of the platform and voila: Problem Solved!
But oh no that would actually make sense…
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Tuesday 10 February 2009
It IS your fault.
A piece of track became flooded this morning in the Potters Bar area. The compassionate lady in customer services said that the piece of track has become a bit of a pool and that they had discovered it around 6am this morning and then decided to implement an emergency timetable meaning no trains at any specific times. Grrrrrreat!
I rock up at Haringey station around 8.25 to be met by calm mayhem. People everywhere, no information and a massive queue in front of the one ticket window. I of course ignore the queue and asks the man when the next train is due. The answer is of course "I don’t know". He points to an A4 paper stuck on the ticket window which in font 10 explains that there has indeed been a flood in the Potters Bar area which means you will not be having a nice start to the morning. I then somewhat politely asks if he would mind perhaps calling someone to find out what the hell is going on as there is a difference between a train coming in the next five minutes and in half an hour especially at 8.30 in the morning when standing in the rain on a platform. So he did. He called and they told him there is a train coming in a few minutes.
I go back down to the platform and voila a train does come, but it is half a train and it is already so packed people have crammed into the “Private” areas of the train.
By this time I have been joined by a few other angry passengers who had been standing waiting for almost an hours seeing train after train go by with no chance of getting on them and we as in a somewhat less polite way when the next train will come. Then this little pissy person pipes up. “It’s not his fault”...
Oh there is nothing like those four magic words to really set me off in the morning. Actually it is his fault. He represent the company I pay (a fair amount as well) to take me to and from work. And he has failed to inform me that there will be no trains today and that I will have to find another way to get to work, i.e the company he works for will not be able to perform the services I pay for. Not only is it his fault, his attitude is the very reason I will not get to work on time this morning.
I inform my fellow passenger and the blond pissy person wearing a multicolour scarf that it is indeed his fault and if he and his other colleagues would take responsibility for their actions and inabilities and would be accountable for their failure to get me to work then maybe we would actually have some trains running on time. I got an applaud! Didn’t get me to work any quicker though.
But hey I am entitled to a £4 travel voucher to use on any national rail service but not the underground or towards a travel card. That's right you don't get your money back all you can claim back is a pissy coupon.
I rock up at Haringey station around 8.25 to be met by calm mayhem. People everywhere, no information and a massive queue in front of the one ticket window. I of course ignore the queue and asks the man when the next train is due. The answer is of course "I don’t know". He points to an A4 paper stuck on the ticket window which in font 10 explains that there has indeed been a flood in the Potters Bar area which means you will not be having a nice start to the morning. I then somewhat politely asks if he would mind perhaps calling someone to find out what the hell is going on as there is a difference between a train coming in the next five minutes and in half an hour especially at 8.30 in the morning when standing in the rain on a platform. So he did. He called and they told him there is a train coming in a few minutes.
I go back down to the platform and voila a train does come, but it is half a train and it is already so packed people have crammed into the “Private” areas of the train.
By this time I have been joined by a few other angry passengers who had been standing waiting for almost an hours seeing train after train go by with no chance of getting on them and we as in a somewhat less polite way when the next train will come. Then this little pissy person pipes up. “It’s not his fault”...
Oh there is nothing like those four magic words to really set me off in the morning. Actually it is his fault. He represent the company I pay (a fair amount as well) to take me to and from work. And he has failed to inform me that there will be no trains today and that I will have to find another way to get to work, i.e the company he works for will not be able to perform the services I pay for. Not only is it his fault, his attitude is the very reason I will not get to work on time this morning.
I inform my fellow passenger and the blond pissy person wearing a multicolour scarf that it is indeed his fault and if he and his other colleagues would take responsibility for their actions and inabilities and would be accountable for their failure to get me to work then maybe we would actually have some trains running on time. I got an applaud! Didn’t get me to work any quicker though.
But hey I am entitled to a £4 travel voucher to use on any national rail service but not the underground or towards a travel card. That's right you don't get your money back all you can claim back is a pissy coupon.
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