London Transport Stab Stab Die Die

Sometimes I really, really hate London. A trip to London on Saturday, in theory: Leave Ely 16:26, arrive Kings Cross 17:34, change to Piccadilly line and arrive Covent Garden at 17:54. Dinner then the 21:52 train back home, arriving 23:10.

A trip to London on Saturday, in practise. Leave Ely 16:26, arrive Kings Cross 10 minutes late. Change to Piccadilly line and stand outside the closed barriers for 15 minutes because of overcrowding. Give up on the tube, catch a number 59 bus to Aldwych: 10 minutes to reach Euston (faster to walk) and gave up after sitting in gridlock on Russel Square for 15 minutes. Eventually get rather empty Piccadilly line from Russel Square to Covent Garden, arriving 18:50. Oh, and then the restaurant said it would be a two hour wait for a table for four.

That said, the return journey wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs. The tube was behaving so that took the expected ten minutes, but then we just missed the train back home and the next train wasn't for over an hour. Jump into a taxi to Liverpool Street to catch the 22:26... to discover there are engineering works and we'd have to get a bus for two hours. Attempt to get the tube back to Kings Cross... more engineering works so that was out. Another taxi back to Kings Cross and we finally get on the last train home, arriving at 00:35.

Just for extra fun I'm in London for the Moblin 2.0 Release Party on Monday and there are yet more engineering works, so if I miss the 22:15 I'll be on a bus for half the journey. Stab stab stab.

15:51 Sunday, 27 Sep 2009 [#] [life] (12 comments)

Posted by Nick at Sun Sep 27 17:41:21 2009:
Round of drinks for Ross at 10pm then. ;-)
Posted by Neil Roberts at Sun Sep 27 18:11:22 2009:
I had a similar experience trying to get back from Euston last night. Ended up waiting for an hour and a half for the late rail-replacement bus and got back at 3.30am :(
Posted by Ross at Sun Sep 27 18:24:41 2009:
Neil: wow, that is a total fail.  The extra fail for us was that my parents were baby sitting, so when they left our house at 1am they had an hour drive to get home.
Posted by JD at Sun Sep 27 20:07:50 2009:
Kings Cross -> Covent Garden is a reasonably acceptable walk. If in doubt, forget the underground. I'd pretend buses don't exist in Zone one; it's invariably quicker to walk.
Posted by Bastien at Sun Sep 27 21:18:23 2009:
Can't you check train times and availability on your fancy phone, or do you still use paper? :)
Posted by Killerkiwi at Sun Sep 27 23:25:07 2009:
Lol, makes me laugh waiting 15 mins... try getting around Auckland NZ some time in a bus.

In fact a year ago it was impossible to get from the North Shore to the Airport in the same day
Posted by Jon at Mon Sep 28 08:59:47 2009:
Except NZ = Country, London = City.
Posted by Ross at Mon Sep 28 09:45:09 2009:
Bastien: obviously a lot of pain would have been avoided had we check for engineering works on the lines we were not planning on using, just in case.

David: I think I'd have walked it if I were on my own, but I don't think Vicky would have agreed. :)
Posted by Russel Winder at Mon Sep 28 13:49:19 2009:
The secret is to live in London, then you can cope with all the multiple points of failure :-)
Posted by Cock Knee Rebel at Mon Sep 28 23:30:09 2009:
Only sometimes?  I always really, really hate London.
Posted by James Henstridge at Tue Sep 29 05:43:05 2009:
Look on the bright side: at least there are times when London public transport doesn't suck.

Even with the almost constant weekend maintenance, I've found it much more useful when visiting than what is available here.
Posted by Chris Cunningham at Tue Sep 29 13:20:36 2009:
This is precisely why alcohol on public transport is such a brilliant idea. Errr, thanks for that BoJo.

- Chris

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