Anonymous Commuters

I commute to work daily. Today however is a little different as I'm heading to London for a meeting. I've caught a train an hour earlier than normal and it's packed.

As I stand wedged in a corner I realise that I spend an awful lot of my time with people I don't know. There's a woman to whom I gave the last seat, reading an A4 document with all the Important bits marked with yellow highlighter. There are two women drinking hot liquids from stainless steal flasks. Many of us are listening to our favourite sounds through headphones. Most are small in-ear ones, but 3 of us have larger over the ear types, myself included. I find they shut out the noise far better and allow for lower volumes to be used. Loonies tend to leave me be too.

There are various mobile phones, Blackberry's, iPhones and one iPad in a fetching shade of white. There are suit wearer, tie wearers and 2 wearer of jeans.



All of a sudden we arrive at our destination, London Bridge. I'm surprised at the lack of urgency displayed by my fellow commuters to get off the train. But once off it was on with the mad dash to the Tube. I did this journey for two years in the early 2000's and I don't miss it one bit. The Tube from London Bridge is a nightmare of delays and Sardines. Not a nice experience and I'm in no hurry to repeat it daily. Once in a while is plenty for me.

I caught the Jubilee Line to Canada Water expecting it to be fairly lightly loaded. How wrong I was. It was obvious that this section of the tube is now just as packed in the rush hour as every other section.

From at Canada Water I caught the recently reopened East London line. I actually designed the control & indication system that controls the signalling for this line, but this was my first trip on it. I am happy to report that my design worked perfectly well today 8-)




I was surprised that so many people could fit on these trains. I thought they would never stop getting of the thing. Eventually they did stop and the reason why so many could squeeze on became clear. Very few seats. Most of the area was designed to allow maximum people to stand. It seems to work quite well to.

I arrived early for my meeting, which was all over by 10:15 and then it was time for the return journey.

Regards
Chris
-------
Posted from my iPhone

Click Here to E-Mail Me Direct

Click Here to Visit my Flickr Account

Season Ticket Failure

Last Tuesday I renewed my annual railway season ticket. Because on the the state of our economy and the fact that the Westminster Muppet Show have loosened controls on the fares train operators can charge, my ticket has broken the £2000 barrier for the first time. This equates to a 7.7% increase from last year, which is more than 2% above inflation. I'd like to point out that my salary is extremely unlikely to keep pace.

Southern Trains have over the last couple of years been fitting automated ticket barriers and my home station received them early last year. This shouldn't be a problem if you have a valid ticket to insert into the machine. However, mine stopped operating the barriers in just over a month last year. This meant that everyday I had to queue up at the manual side barrier four times each day. Mostly this was fine, but on a couple of occasions the speed of the queue ment I missed my train.

I was so please when last Tuesday my new ticket let me through the barriers without any delay. Unfortunately I seem to have set a new record as this morning it failed to work. I made that just seven days of un-impeded travel. I have two choices, visit the ticket office & ask for a replacement or spend the next 12 months queuing up 4 times a day!

Regards
Chris
-------
Posted from my iPhone

Click Here to E-Mail Me Direct

Click Here to Visit my Flickr Account

London to Ashford in a flash

Today I when from St. Panceras International station in London to Ashford in Kent on the new Javelin high speed train. It took just 38 minutes platform to platform and was very smooth & comfy indeed. That's how modern train travel should be.



It might not sound all that amazing, but believe me it is. If you compare the journey time with the regular service from Ashford to London Victoria, on a good day it saves you about an hour.

From where I live the train into London takes about an hour and it's far nearer than Ashford. Perhaps I should move to Kent!

Regards
Chris
-------
Posted from my iPhone

Click Here to E-Mail Me Direct

Click Here to Visit my Flickr Account

Man's arm trapped in train toilet

According to the BBC News Website, a Frenchman managed to get his hand stuck fast in the toilet bowl of a TGV train yesterday.

Apparently this unfortunate traveller dropped his mobile phone into the train on board loo. When he put his hand in to retrieve it, his arm was sucked all the way in.

A train toilet is not somewhere I'd fancy fishing about in. I was on a First Great Western service from Chippenham to London Paddington last week and I know just how foul train toilets can be. You couldn't pay me enough to stick my digits down one of those!!!!

Full Story - Man's arm trapped in train toilet

Regards



Click Here to E-Mail Me Direct

Click Here to Visit my Flickr Account