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Underground
Aug. 9th, 2006 09:36 pmI was in London at the weekend and had a fabulous time, but was a little put out by the London Underground closing down bits for track work on Sunday.
I have no problem with the works taking place. I know they have to be done, and some weekend disruption is inevitable.
My issue is with the lack of information. I remember a couple of years ago there would be posters in the ticket hall of every tube station telling you of any disruptions on the system. They were hand written affairs, often on whiteboards, but they were simple, easy to keep up to date, and they worked. I was in the ticket halls of Uxbridge, Camden Town, Mornington Crescent, Picidilly Circus and Totenham Court Road, and I did not see any poster detailing the line closures. Maybe I wasn't looking for them, but I would think they should be prominant enough that I might notice them and check whether I needed to alter my journey plans.
In King's Cross, a woman asked me why all the trains were for Edgeware. She wanted to go somewhere on the High Barnett branch. I suggested she go to Camden Town where the two middle branches meet so she would have a greater selection of trans. It was only when I got there I found out that the High Barnet branch wasn't running. This wasn't too bad as the replacement bus service was running from Camden.
What really irritated me was learning that the section of the DLR out of Bank wasn't running. I didn't find out until I'd walked all the way through Bank to get to the closed DLR enterance. If there had even been announcements in the station, I could have found an alternative route without such a long walk. Better still would have been to read it on a poster at the station enterance before starting my journey (at any of the several stations I entered), so I could have planned a route that didn't take me to Bank at all.
I could have taken the replacement bus service from Monument, but I decided to head for the Jubilee line instead, changing to the DLR at Canning Town. Fortunately, I had allowed plenty of time to check in. From the way some people ran when the train reached the City Airport station, I assume they were cutting it fine for their flight. I hope they made it.
I have no problem with the works taking place. I know they have to be done, and some weekend disruption is inevitable.
My issue is with the lack of information. I remember a couple of years ago there would be posters in the ticket hall of every tube station telling you of any disruptions on the system. They were hand written affairs, often on whiteboards, but they were simple, easy to keep up to date, and they worked. I was in the ticket halls of Uxbridge, Camden Town, Mornington Crescent, Picidilly Circus and Totenham Court Road, and I did not see any poster detailing the line closures. Maybe I wasn't looking for them, but I would think they should be prominant enough that I might notice them and check whether I needed to alter my journey plans.
In King's Cross, a woman asked me why all the trains were for Edgeware. She wanted to go somewhere on the High Barnett branch. I suggested she go to Camden Town where the two middle branches meet so she would have a greater selection of trans. It was only when I got there I found out that the High Barnet branch wasn't running. This wasn't too bad as the replacement bus service was running from Camden.
What really irritated me was learning that the section of the DLR out of Bank wasn't running. I didn't find out until I'd walked all the way through Bank to get to the closed DLR enterance. If there had even been announcements in the station, I could have found an alternative route without such a long walk. Better still would have been to read it on a poster at the station enterance before starting my journey (at any of the several stations I entered), so I could have planned a route that didn't take me to Bank at all.
I could have taken the replacement bus service from Monument, but I decided to head for the Jubilee line instead, changing to the DLR at Canning Town. Fortunately, I had allowed plenty of time to check in. From the way some people ran when the train reached the City Airport station, I assume they were cutting it fine for their flight. I hope they made it.
