Thursday, August 04, 2005

Piccadilly resumes

Piccadilly line trains began running normally again this morning for the first time since the attacks on July 7th. This means I can go back to my usual journey to work, and can say goodbye to my emergency alternative route, using the Central Line. It was a reasonable service, apart from three irritating things. The morning timetable says that trains run every 4-11 minutes. At the height of the rush hour you would expect the frequency to be closer to the 4 than to the 11. But every day the gap between trains is about 8 -9 minutes. And coming home there is an irritating tendency for the journey between Shepherds Bush and White City to be a series of stop-starts at each of the signals en route. My final whinge is about the down escalator at Shepherds Bush, immobile for the past four weeks. A printed notice says it is a temporary delay. I wonder what "temporary" means? Perhaps all available maintenance staff are still working on clearing up the bomb damage but I suspect that the guys who do the escalators are outside contractors who would not be otherwise engaged.

Anyway, here's hoping that I don't have to revert to the Central for a decent interval. Now I can return to my core activity of moaning about the Piccadilly. Stand by for the first such bulletin.

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