On Tue, 26 Jun 2007, Mike Hughes wrote:

In message , Movilla
writes

At Kings Cross the platform was totally full and we were going nowhere.
After much faffing (driver was telling people to get off, announcements
were indicating otherwise), we then overheard lines were stopped at
Circle, Hammersmith and City, Metropolitan and Victoria. Complete
chaos. I then heard Kings Cross was to close. I got above ground at
09:00 and paid £20 got get a black cab to Bank for the DLR

When all other forms of transport fail taxis keep people moving (well nearly
always). Yet we get no subsidy

Oh really? We're having that argument in another thread!

tom

--
Science is bound, by the everlasting vow of honour, to face fearlessly
every problem which can be fairly presented to it. -- Lord Kelvin

On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:57:47 +0100, "Movilla"
wrote:

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:24:18 +0100, Edward Cowling London UK
wrote:

I could try to explain but I don't think that would help. It was a
particularly awful morning in terms of big signal problems so I'll say
sorry instead given that I work for LU.

That's the first and only apology from LU (ok, you're not a spokesman but
I'll accept it).

Thank you.

[snip tale of woe]
Buses were not an option.

They would have helped in part in getting you closer to where you were
heading.

I have only got stuck once in a number of years when trying to use my
alternative routes and it is much less stressful to be able to take a
firm decision to go to the stop to catch bus x to get to y.

You should have seen it outside Kings Cross. Try competing with about 500
other people trying to get where they're going. No amount of planning ahead
can prepare you for that.

I can imagine KX was awful but I would contend that making a move
quickly to make progress is still helpful. The other suggestion about
walking back a stop or station to avoid the immediate crowd is also
useful. For your information you could have taken a 205 to Mile End
direct and then changed for a frequent bus to Canary Wharf.

Alternatively a 17 bus would have taken you direct to London Bridge for
the Jubilee Line. Alternatively a Thameslink train might have got you to
London Bridge although I accept the peak frequency is not very good for
that link.

A 45 or 63 bus would take you to Southwark Station to catch the Jubilee
Line.

A 214 or 205 would get you to Moorgate which is but a short walk to Bank
for the DLR. The 205 also serves Aldgate which is a short walk to Tower
Gateway for other DLR services or else stay on to Whitechapel for the
East London Line to Canada Water and then the Jubilee Line.

P.S. I know the staff were under a lot of stress but I heard on various
occasions people saying "well, at least they could apologise and not just
shout at us".

I think part of the reason for this is that passengers are resistant to
obeying evacuation announcements. People don't want to head for the
exit for entirely understandable reasons and they therefore try not to.
It can mean the staff do need to shout to get the message across that
people *have* to leave the station. If the priority is to get people to
a place of safety then perhaps apologies come a little way down the
immediate list of priorities.

--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

Paul Corfield wrote in uk.transport.london on Tue, 26 Jun 2007
19:48:56 +0100 :

You probably won't like my next suggestion and I would agree that you
shouldn't have to plan like this. I make sure I have a number of
alternative routes already worked out to get me to where I want to get
to.

Agreed on both counts (that one shouldn't have to plan for this, but
that contingency plans are well worth it).

I've regularly been amazed at the number of fellow travellers during
the peaks who don't appear to realise that there *are* alternatives to
their chosen route, even without running the risk of being turned into
a toad by getting on (shock, horror) a *bus*.

Heading the "wrong" way from the congestion point for a while in order
to get on a bus heading back in the right direction before the
pressure of hundreds of folk at a bus stop is a further option that
I've found pays dividends.

(Insert further disclaimers about the preferability of
perfectly-designed, resourced and planned systems, catering for
irregular users, my not working for TfL, etc, etc.)

Dave
"are you trying to tell me coconuts migrate?"

Hi,

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

So I'm thinking, why am I paying £33.20 a week to put up with this crap,
and why people keep voting for Ken, the guy who promised to transform
the Tube !!

Make sure you fill out your customer charter refund form (available
from
leaflet racks at tube stations), which at least slightly reduces the
amount
one has to pay out each week./month. I get a reasonably steady stream
of vouchers through the post.

I've been considering handing them out to other passengers when
delayed, but there isn't the space to walk through the carriage in the
mornings.

Luke

"Luke Ross" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

Edward Cowling London UK wrote:

So I'm thinking, why am I paying £33.20 a week to put up with this crap,
and why people keep voting for Ken, the guy who promised to transform
the Tube !!

Make sure you fill out your customer charter refund form (available
from leaflet racks at tube stations), which at least slightly reduces the
amount one has to pay out each week./month. I get a reasonably steady stream
of vouchers through the post.

Can you claim for the cost of alternative journeys? I had to pay £20 for a
cab from KX to Bank but didn't bother getting a receipt thinking there was
no way I could claim it back.

On 27 Jun, 22:28, "Movilla" wrote:
Can you claim for the cost of alternative journeys? I had to pay £20 for a
cab from KX to Bank but didn't bother getting a receipt thinking there was
no way I could claim it back.

Well, if it was a work journey, I'd suggest claiming it back from work
(you needed me at place X at time Y for a meeting or whatever, the
only way to achieve this was by taxi, therefore you owe me for a
taxi).

If not, then you're probably right.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org

Hi,

Movilla wrote:

Make sure you fill out your customer charter refund form (available
from leaflet racks at tube stations), which at least slightly reduces the
amount one has to pay out each week./month. I get a reasonably steady stream
of vouchers through the post.

Can you claim for the cost of alternative journeys? I had to pay £20 for a
cab from KX to Bank but didn't bother getting a receipt thinking there was
no way I could claim it back.

Sadly the charter only covers the cost of the journey - no
consequential loss (which
the taxi would fall under, I believe). They pay-out is £4 per single
journey, as that's
the cost of a cash single tube journey. The form is postage-paid and
takes about
five minutes to fill in. You can also claim online, but it isn't as
flexible and I don't
believe in reducing the admin cost of charter claims :-)

Regards,

Luke

On Jun 26, 7:24 pm, Edward Cowling London UK
wrote:

So I'm thinking, why am I paying £33.20 a week to put up with this crap,
and why people keep voting for Ken, the guy who promised to transform
the Tube !!


One thing that I very much like about living in London is that, if you
end up late for more or less any kind of appointment for more or less
any reason, you can say "sorry, the Tube was rubbish" and get
sympathetic nods and no grudges held (obviously with the exception of
a few special one-off events such as exams, court appearances,
weddings, for which you just need to head off an hour early).

It would be far worse to live somewhere like Japan, where turning up
late for work is a sacking offence unless you have the signed suicide
note of the train company's CEO for running his train five minutes
late. So three cheers for successive central and local governments for
accidentally and incompetently striking a blow against the tyranny of
the clock!

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org