I was on my way to hear a talk by Tim Evans in Putney about his work as the boss of CNE. Presumably it was going to be similar to the talk flagged up here.
Anyway, I walked to St James’s Park tube station, which was open and functioning but with not many people using it. A train was standing at the platform and I ran down the steps in the hope of getting into it before the doors closed. I need not have bothered. It waited, and waited.
Until eventually, an announcement materialised saying: security alert at Victoria (the next station along the line). Damn. There I was, eager to do my bit to face down those moronofascist terrorists by going about my business as usual, as per the Spirit of the Blitz etc., which in my case meant a sweaty tube journey out to Putney to an evening meeting, but unable to make my journey. Very annoying. I would really have liked to have heard that talk of Tim’s, but there was now no way I was going to get to Putney in time.
All those Londoners who would have had to share my inconvenience had they got caught by the same delay, but who had instead decided to give their work a miss today, turned out to have made a wise decision.
I asked the bloke at the ticket barrier I went back through if I could get my money back. He pointed at the ticket window where I had bought my ticket, but said he did not fancy my chances, on account of my ticket being usable to get to my destination by other means, namely two interminable bus journeys or one bus journey and an annoyingly long walk. (Which, by the way, I was not sure about and would have to find out about. Ugh!) So when I nevertheless asked for my refund I emphasised that there was no other way I could get where I wanted to in time. And guess what, he gave me my money back. However, I got the definite impression from all of this that under normal circumstances – no bombs yesterday, the usual crazy rush hour crowds – I would not have been so lucky. They are not usually this reasonable. Has the word gone out to these guys to be nice to the passengers, until we return in sufficient numbers to clog everything up again, and they can resume their normal level of small-print-based nastiness, in circumstances like these?
I can find no reference on the internet to this particular little flap, as of 10pm, which is when I am writing this. The only relevant thing I could find was a reference to “Minor delays are occurring on the rest of the line”, i.e. the District Line, which is what it says around now at this Transport for London page.
My guess: jumpy people, chasing shadows, preferring the soft cushion of being safe to the faintest possibility of being sorry. Which is understandable. I am afraid London will be like this for quite a few more days yet.
Well, the Transport for London website is one of the less dependable sources for transport info. I remember looking at the National Rail site yesterday for station info., abd it did not appear to be updated after 9.30, a less than useful response under the circumstances.
Sky News and Nosemonkey were more helpful.
I think Brian is right about the tube workers being far more polite than usual and it might have been a temporary policy decision too. The usual congestion charge was waived yesterday and today. Also there was free parking in Central London today all day long. This was a marvelous thing as not many people knew about it. There were not a lot of cars in town and parking was no problem at all where I went. Not a warden in site all day, fantastic.
Well, I made it to Tim’s meeting on my trusty bike. Maybe you should get yourself one Brian 🙂
I can tell you the talk was very good. Tim is able to give excellent insights into Europe’s political elites.
There’s a good piece by Mick Hume on Spiked about official jumpiness vs public stoicism. Here.
I used the tube about 4 times yesterday and, very unusually, all the trains ran on time and the station staff were, again unusually, very polite. There was a 1 minute delay at Earls Court where the train stopped in a tunnel but the driver immediately announced that it was due to a signal. Very subdued and tense though and everyone watching everyone else’s baggage like a hawk.
I doubt it was anything as organised as a ‘policy decision’ – more the staff’s natural sense of ‘Let’s keep our chins up in this unusual situation’.
I expect it won’t be long before things go back to normal, with rude staff and passengers in equal measure!
I am going to stay off the public transport system until next week. I normally get off at King’s Cross but don’t fancy it given the rescue work still going on there. It does not seem right somehow.