As I Xi It

Further to my previous post regarding London Underground. I present to you, this afternoon’s service announcement -

*Thumbs down*

At least I’m not taking it today.

Oh London Underground, you are that unnecessary evil.

I’ve been taking The Tube more often than usual over the past week or so and every time I’ve been on, there has always been something wrong with the Bakerloo line. The worst is when you’re at the platform waiting. Waiting without an announcement or notification on the iPhone about minor delays/severe delays/part suspensions*.

Sure, The Tube was once a pioneering marvel in rapid transit systems but over a hundred years on, you wonder whether parts of it are still stuck in the mid-1800′s. Plenty of cities have since surpassed it in speed and efficiency. As a life long Londoner and intrepid traveler, it does pain me to say that The Tube is among the worst metro system I have used, along with Paris Metro. Paris Metro might be marginally worse as you have to lift up a latch to exit the carriage, at least it’s automated on The Tube.

I’m trying to think of something positive to say about The Tube, but the best I can come up with is that once in a while, when you’re stuck between stations, the announcement can be quite entertaining.

*Delete as appropriate.

Took a pic of the journey history screen at SK today and it turns out I was deducted £4.40 for an incomplete journey. Slightly less annoyed, but still annoyed nonetheless. It’s not the first time it’s buggered up.

Arrgh!!!

Mind my money!

I am just unbelievebly, phenomenally pissed off to the extent that I’ll be writing an angry, disgruntled letter to TfL to complain like a grumpy elderly person with too much time on their hands.

On the way home from Cutty Sark, when I tapped in, the gates made that unapproving multiple beeping noise. On the Oyster terminal nearby, I checked my credit and it was -£1.10 which I thought was odd since I had £3.30 on the card the last time I tapped out of the DLR and given how much I’d travelled today, the ticket price should’ve been capped (I had almost £9 on my card this morning). So, I had a look at my Oyster history at the terminal nearby and found that the system had charged me full price for a single non-Oyster ticket due to two incomplete journeys- one starting from Euston Square (didn’t register that I had tapped out at Tower Bridge) and the other ended at Cutty Sark (didn’t register that I started that leg of the journey at Tower Gateway).

What was worse was that from Tower Gateway to Cutty Sark on the way out, my Oyster card was checked by a TfL ticket inspector man with his little reader device to make sure that I had tapped in and had a valid Oyster card. If there was something wrong, he would’ve said something and I could’ve been fined, but he didn’t. So one would assume that all was well. So obviously, somewhere along the lines of the whole Oyster card system, there’s a glitch.

Now I have to make a complaint to TfL to get my money back. I know it’s only a couple of quid, but it’s the principle that matters! In this age of austerity, I can’t be throwing money away like that. Especially as the trains are usually late. I had to suffer with “minor delays on the circle line”. Minor delays my arse.

Looks like I’m not the only one with Oyster woes.

TfL is definitely not winning.

It’s snowing here in London and TfL are striking, trying to get anywhere on public transport this weekend is nigh on impossible.

On most weekends, there’d be the usual series of part closures due to engineering works. This weekend, even if TfL didn’t strike, The Tube would still be pretty crappy with faulty trains, severe delays and part suspensions due to adverse weather conditions.

Joy.

I feel I ought to do a top three least favourite things post.

In no particular order, they are:

1. Delays on The Tube.

2. Mould.

3. People who walk too slowly.

I find that I have some of my wackiest thoughts while I’m on The Tube. I ought to get into the habit of bringing my offline blog with me.

While I was going down the escalators at a station on the way back, I always want to get to the platform presto-pronto as not all trains go all the way to the end of my line. Sometimes, on a bad day, I could be waiting 20 minutes for such a train.

What really annoys me is that some people just don’t stand on the right-hand side of the escalator if they’re not willing to walk the steps and block the way for those of us who want to get to our destination quickly.

This afternoon, a group of four people basically just plugged up a section of the escalator so the left-hand side which is for quick passage was blocked. There was a queue of about 6 people behind them. Isn’t it obvious to people that if you’re static, stay on the right and if you’re moving, stay on the left?? With everyone standing on the right and leaving the left empty, it kinda gives it away. What really didn’t help matters was that the guy closest to the obstructive group didn’t do anything about it. Luckily, the train I wanted arrived on the platform just after I got there. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes it really just get my goat.

What’s quite bizzare is that in Singapore, there are signs that tell people to stand on the left and walk on the right on the MRT escalators but everyone does the opposite.