And this month's Acton* award for poor commuting service goes to...
The Metropolitan Line. (Short pause for catcalls, throwing of non-EU standard vegetables and a general air of opproprium)
Yesterday morning I was detrained at Harrow. Yesterday evening the train I attempted to board at Harrow was defective and taken out of service. This morning, thanks again to late running engineering work, I was detrained at Harrow and delayed, and tonight I arrived at Baker Street to find one train at platform 1 with doors closed and the lights out, and another at platform 2 jammed full but clearly going nowhere. Tonight's excuse was signal trouble at Finchley Road. And LU excelled themselves. They announced that everyone wishing to proceed to Finchley Road and beyond should take the Jubilee. because none of the Met trains were going anywhere. Many poured out of the train and began fighting their way down the steps to the deeper platforms. And then the driver of the train announced, rather quietly, that he was about to leave. I jumped in, as did quite a few others and stood in a crowded compartment until Harrow. Whereupon, to my amazement, we were not detrained, but never mind, we crawled down the track thereafter because of the number of trains ahead of us.
I had stopped moaning about the Underground in this blog since ceasing to use the Piccadilly regularly and I do hope I don't have to start again. Actually, upon reading the foregoing, it seems that I may have begun so to do.
Footnote: The Acton awards are named in honour of Acton Town, where I have spent many hours waiting and cursing because trains were cancelled or diverted to the Heathrow branch. As a symbol of rotten management, it stands alongside Northern Rock, the Iraqi war and the 2012 Olympics.
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