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The years of commuting dangerously. Excerpts of life in Transport for London’s hands.
January 6th. The techno-bricklayers
March 31st. TfL apology masterclass, lesson 1.
May 15th. The butterfly effect, TfL version.
November 1st A Bank holiday night bus.
November 5th. TfL apology masterclass, lesson 2.
January 8th. Physics, signalling and frostbite.
January 17th. Car or Casserole?
March 3rd. So quick it goes off the rails.
June 26th. Heavens!
October 20th. TfL apology masterclass, lesson 3.
Chapter 1 – October 28th
Chapter 1-and-a-half – October 28th
Chapter 1-and-three-quarters – October 28th
Chapter 2 – November 10th
Chapter 3 – December 2nd
March 23rd. Dog-watching.
March 30th. Mixed signals.
June 13th. When it calls, it calls.
July 7th. The incredible self-combusting Hounslow East station.
July 13th. The birth of the Boomerang Train.
July 26th. Marshmellows or Else.
This entry was posted in Europe, London, Odd ones out, Public Transportation, Random memories, UK and tagged Britain, Commuting, Disruption, Facebook, Piccadilly Line, Signal Failure, Strike, TfL, Transport for London, Tube, UK. Bookmark the permalink.
Hilarious!! One thing I don’t miss about London!
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And it’s going to be one thing I won’t miss too when I finally leave this place! Thanks for reading, Anna!
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Wow, I had no idea it was that inefficient. Like Kafkaesque. This only accentuates my desire to not visit London.
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Hi Julie, I suppose that if you’re a tourist or a visitor you don’t get to see a lot of the crap that goes on with public transport, but it is indeed Kafkaesque. Just yesterday, for instance, they started works at Waterloo that shut down half the platforms. The photos of the station were scary; was it really needed? Couldn’t they do anything differently? One can only wonder…
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Wow, if it can be this bad in a major city in a developed country, then it *almost* (almost) justifies ours in Manila. We had a train literally gently push another train loaded with passengers once because the latter broke down mid-trip and couldn’t be repaired. I commiserate!
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That would never be allowed on TfL due to Health & Safety (and I’m sure some union agreement). Better to shut down the entire line, apologise profusely, let everyone down and cause chaos to a good chunk of London… yes, sure!
Thanks for reading Julia!
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Haha – quite amusing (to a faraway reader who is unlikely to have to deal with it, of course!). The DC Metro might rival the inefficiency but can’t match the scope of your woes.
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I told you Lexi, TfL is in a league of its own. The King Kong of cock-ups!
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Hihi. My favourite line of theirs is: “Recently our performance has fallen short of what you deserve and I apologise.” As you well know, the equivalent service in Rome would never say it quite as eloquently. They just don’t care. And I’m sure over there strikes are not nearly as numerous as in Italy because that would be impossible. So there’s that… Also, is your FB a carefully guarded secret or is it accessible to the masses such as me?
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Yes, they do apologise pretty constantly. Even for lines I haven’t been on. The “recently” at the beginning made me laugh, a guy read it as well and said loud “recently as in the last 15 years innit?”
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This was incredibly entertaining to read. But far from entertaining to live I am sure. Nightmare!
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Hi Forty, thanks for reading! Indeed it can be frustrating, especially when you’re in a rush to be somewhere, but once you lower the bar then any good day is a surprise!
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At least it makes for good writing material, if not a terribly straightforward journey 🙂
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Amen to that! 🙂
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