A Detour - part 2

Well folks it got worse. Assuming you've seen the previous post ("A detour") you will have learned that the Jubilee was screwed up yesterday morning. And on my homeward journey it was still screwed up (though they had a different reason for it now). I was unable to take my usual Bakerloo train north from Waterloo because the platform was so overcrowded that they were spilling back to the foot of the escalators. So I retraced my journey of the morning and used the Northern to get to Euston Square, where I hoped to find a friendly Uxbridge bound Met.

Alas, I had forgot me the date (as Julius Caesar might have said in another context). For it was the night of a friendly football match at Wembley. And the crowds that might have used the Jubilee to get to Wembley were obliged to use the Met, and though an Uxbridge did indeed arrive quickly, it was too full to be boarded, as was the following Amersham but by then I had gritted my teeth, girded my loins (mentally, you understand, I don't go in for much loin-girding in public these days) and I forced my way on and had a really uncomfortable journey most of the way home. But at least we caught up with the Uxbridge at Harrow so I didn't have to waste a further 10 minutes waiting for the next one.

And as I surmised yesterday, they charged me for making the short break between Euston Square and Warren Street and the bill for the day's delayed and stressed journey came to £10.

To cap it all, this morning the normally reliable Bakerloo was suspended.

Hum. I still maintain holding the Olympics in London is going to be a mistake. What on earth will they do when the Jubilee has some signal failures/ power failures / defective trains (insert your favourite excuse here) in that torrid summer of 2012?

A Detour

I knew something was up when the wrong Metropolitan came in. You see, unlike the other lines on the Underground, Metropolitan trains run to a timetable and you know whether they are on time if you can recognise the header code displayed on the front of the train. Today, at Ruislip Manor in the morning, instead of my normal 433, the train was 466. And when they announced that the Jubilee was closed and trains on the Met were blocking back due to overcrowding, my fears were confirmed.

When we reached Baker Street, some 15 minutes late, both the southbound and northbound platforms were crowded, something I have never seen before in the morning. The Jubilee was still out (power failure) and they had closed access to the Bakerloo to prevent overcrowding on the platforms, so the Met platforms were jammed instead. Normally I take the Bakerloo but I did not try to join the mob but stayed on until Euston Square, got out and walked over to Warren St and continued my journey by the Northern (often derided but I have no complaints about it today).

It is always a little disorientating when you take a different route but end up at the same destination as usual. And it can hit you in the pocket - having gone out of the system and then gone back in, I may perhaps be charged for two separate journeys - how intelligent the ticketing process is will only be known when I look at the total charge for today.