An Olympic commute*

[* warning: misleading title: Ed]

I made my usual journey to Waterloo yesterday morning, returning to beautiful Ruislip late afternoon. Trains were fine, though crowded on the homeward leg, weather most pleasant, nothing to report really. Except that this was the first "working" day since the Games began on Friday evening and was my first chance to see how the system would cope.
The morning inward leg was a typical summer's day, noticeably fewer people actually going to work more or less balanced by tourists. Coming home, as usual whilst waiting for a Met at Finchley Road the Jubblies were shuttling through at the rate of about 3 every 5 minutes, so full marks there for the service to Stratford. The Mets were full, almost everyone seemed to be a non-native and many debarked at Wembley Park so I guess they were all games-goers, but there was little sense of it. No flags or scarves in national colours, no chanting, no flaunting of approved sponsor products (or guiltily hiding away of offending materials).
So from this utterly non-representative sample, I can report that the Tube is coping well and Londoners can go about their business much as usual. This has been AnthonyG for Ramblings, somewhere in Ruislip, and now back to the studio.

A musical interlude

A few hectic days away, in Dorset and Yorkshire, have provided a nice counterpoint to the normal semi-commuting routine. One reason for this was to chauffeur Mrs. Commuter as she managed a major tour by the superb young "Arakaender Bolivia Choir" who obtained rave reviews as they performed long-lost music from the days of the Jesuit missions to South America. In York, always a good place to visit, the heavy rains of recent days flooded the River Ouse so rapidly that a riverside path that was mainly dry in the morning was under two foot of water later that afternoon.

And here is that self-same path - the water on the left is also floodwater, rather than the normal riverbank.  At least York is built to withstand flooding - all the properties along the river bank are raised and there was headroom under the bridges - but of course many other towns have suffered.

The tube seems to be coping ok during this extreme weather, although, thanks to my non-commuting day yesterday, I managed to avoid a system failure at Hillingdon possibly caused by a lightning strike on the electrical power supply.  The new "S" stock trains now supply the bulk of the Met's rolling stock and sightings of the old A60s and 62s are becoming rare but the new trains still can't take advantage of the promised new signalling systems. Every morning journey into Baker Street recently has been dogged by slow running and stoppages between stations. The evening runs have been fine. But my word, the evening trains do get crowded.

And now a note about the future. My office is likely to move north of the river in a few months and I will cease to use the Bakerloo. No regrets about losing the jammed evening trains but it has been a remarkably good service over the past 6 years. Instead it looks like my Met journeys will be extended beyond Baker Street toward Moorgate, an itinerary I used to do many many years ago whilst a young accountant. So it will be farewell to the deep tunnels and a warm welcome to the ancient cut and cover of the world's oldest underground system.  [Sounds romantic - I'm looking forward to it: Ed]

Olympics on the horizon

Regular readers [don't make me laugh: Ed] will know that I opposed the UK's bid to host the Olympics and I remain opposed, partly on the grounds of the huge and unwarranted cost, partly the corruption in the IOC, evidenced by the reselling of tickets by officials at inflated prices, partly because I loathe the nationalism and corporatism that surrounds what should be a fun athletics event and partly because of its disruptive impact on those of us obliged to pay for it but who have no intention of going anywhere near it.

Anyway, TFL are getting excited about it. Twice on my short Bakerloo journey into town this morning the driver told us we should start panicking about travelling during the games and advised checking  Getaheadofthegames for more info. This website is quite useful, showing on a day by day basis the stations most likely to be severely busy.  Not too vital for your correspondent who hopes to avoid the whole business but I would recommend anyone who must travel into or around London during the games to check it out. I am a little dubious about how busy things will be because anyone who, like me, has some choice in the matter will surely not be travelling whilst the games are on. We shall find out soon.

A spot of rain

This article is just to put the record straight.  I recently was foolish enough to make a favourable comment on the pleasant weather of late May. So of course it has been heavy rain and cloud ever since.  There has been severe flooding in Wales and southern England. Some places have had almost a month's rain in a day. Even in beautiful Ruislip there has been plenty of the wet stuff, day after day. Some of the plants, selected for their drought-resistant properties, that we put in the garden recently are looking distinctly unwell. Oh the irony. [not sure this is ironic actually: Ed]

We still have a hosepipe ban in force, though who on earth would need to use a hosepipe right now I cannot imagine.  It will probably be lifted in the autumn when we will presumably get another prolonged dry spell that sets up a drought for next summer, assuming there is a next summer.

So there we are. A heatwave in eastern Europe where the European Football Championships are under way, with England making their usual soggy start [nice weather links there: Ed] and the same peculiar pattern here as for several recent years - a hot dry spring and a cool wet summer.  The climate is not what it was when I was a lad.

Stuck in a tunnel

I mentioned yesterday that my homebound journey was made more difficult by problems on the Jubilee [shouldn't that be Jubbly or something equally derisive?: Ed]. Yes, Ed, it will be, but what I had not known was the unfortunate passengers on the train that stuck near St. John's Wood were trapped in the sweltering heat for four hours before their escape which required walking 3/4 of a mile through the tunnels. The promised compensation, £40 per person I believe, is the least that LU could do.

I travelled into town  for a concert last night and noticed on the Neasden sidings a normal Jubbly attached to one decked out in livery celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubbly, er Jubilee.  There is a rumour on District Dave that it was this gaudy showpiece that failed so spectacularly and that it was eventually hauled out by another train, so it looks like this is indeed what happened. And I was indeed glad that I had brought a bottle of water as my Met ("A" stock so not air-conditioned) crawled from Harrow to Neasden for no obvious reason (um, it was obviously travelling 'twixt the two but what I meant was, no obvious reason for it to be so slow. [Thanks, I was confused about that: Ed]) but threatening every moment to stop and let us simmer gently in the afternoon sun.

LU very sensibly advise passengers to carry water on hot days. What they do not do is make it easy to obtain the stuff. Vending machines dispensing cold drinks on platforms? Bit of a no-brainer, I think and it's not the first time I have said so - I wrote the same in June 2005. I fear I may have to return to this theme in another seven years, assuming that one will still be blogging then. Or commuting. Watch this space