Wednesday, October 18, 2006

A diversion at Finchley Road

I’ve commented before on the lack of communications in the tube network. There was an excellent example today.  I was on a London-bound Metropolitan train approaching Finchley Road. The driver announced a problem with the brakes and that we were to be turned out.  The train was pretty full. He told us that the station staff knew of our arrival.

Just as we pulled in, a Jubilee train on the adjacent platform, almost empty, pulled out.  Perhaps 700 people emerged from the Met train, of which at least 40% stood and waited for the next Jubilee. So why did the waiting Jubilee not wait just a few seconds longer and remove 300 people from a severely overcrowded platform? Had nobody told the driver? Or did he think “to hell with it” and go as soon as he could?

The trains are frequent enough during peak hours and the congestion cleared fairly quickly. So I’m not making a fuss about it, just adding the incident to my ever-growing casebook.

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