h-l's fantastic public transport poll thingy!

[baratron]

I had an extremely fun journey today - so fun, that I've decided to share its wonders with you by means of a poll.

I travel every day from Kingston to London Bridge, a journey which should take 50 minutes door-to-door:

• 5 minutes to walk from home to the station
  
• 25 minutes from Kingston to Waterloo
  
• 5 minutes to walk from Waterloo to Waterloo East
  
• 7 minutes to get from Waterloo East to London Bridge
  
• 8 minutes to walk from London Bridge to work.

Today, it took far longer. Can you guess how long?

[Poll #11303]
I look forward to seeing your answers :)

Comments

bad transport

[noonoo.livejournal.com]

I live near Upton Park station...
over the summer I was working in Charing Cross, and used Embankment station. it's a straight ride on the District line from Upton Park to Embankment. usual timings...

20 mins walk to station
30 mins train journey
10 mins walk to work

so it generally took an hour to get there, door to door.

then they shut the eastbound platform to re-surface it for a few weeks. it was working normally. However, one day, I think it was in July, it was the hottest day of the year. the signals broke at Barking, 2 stops down the line, and my train stopped at upton park. the carriages were really really hot and all windows were open. we stopped outside the station for about half an hour, and then moved to the next signal in the station. people were complaining and then someone pressed the emergency stop button (even though the train was stopped) because they wanted to let the driver know that someone had passed out from the heat. the station was closed, and the platform was boarded up, but there was about 1 metre wide along the station, of platform next to the train. the driver said he wasn't going to open the doors, even though people would get air, because everyone would get out onto the station.

a few more people were passing out and getting dizzy due to all the heat. another half an hour passed, and then the driver made the announcement that he was opening the doors. all of the passengers next to the doors decided to get off the train, to try and get out at the station. however, it was closed because of the re-surfacing, so you couldn't get out of it. about a quarter of an hour later, the driver made the announcement that the signal problem had been fixed, and that everyone should get back on the train. most of the people at the station decided this was a bad idea. but the train couldn't leave without picking everyone up - no trains were going to stop there for another couple of weeks!!!!

in the end, the police were called, and had to cross the tracks to get to the people on the platform. they had to usher everyone in and deal with some violent people and argumentative people. it was all just stupid, because the passengers didn't understand that the station was closed and you couldn't get out. a few ambulances were called to take the heat-stricken passengers to hospital. police arrested a few people that were refusing to get back on the train!

none of this was reported anywhere. did any of you watch the London Underground programme on channel 4 a few weeks ago? it was the same day that loads of people got trapped in a hot tunnel near Highbury and Islington station. Also, that event never found the light of day until c4 was leaked a copy of the Underground's annual report. The Highbury incident was nearly fatal. How would it have looked if 200 people died and it went unnoticed?

me thinks something needs to be done.