So you leave home Monday morning, earlier than usual due to staff shortages, but you’re buoyed by the lovely weekend, spirits lifted like the American women lifting the World Cup (female variety) on Sunday afternoon, its bright and sunny, Wimbledon’s around and it feels like ‘there’s everything to play for’. Then you arrive at the tube station. Where there, waiting for you, on the platform, all 6 million of the viewers of Sunday’s football final. Not cheering but now wearing civvies and looking a bit more miserable than they were in Lyon, but all of them. Because there were no trains. Well, none forthcoming. But fortunately, this was Transport for London. And they, above all others, know the value of information, of keeping people aware of circumstances, making their travelers know every option and alternative possible in the light of the very obvious problem, and helping them navigate around it.

They said nothing. Not a fucking word. Not even that there was a problem. Though it didn’t take an Einstein to work out the massively large numbers of people milling round were relatively unusual. So we had to guess. The describer boards showed all trains going ‘via Bank’, even though we later learned that there was no southbound service at all, whatsoever, on the Bank branch. Lucky its a ‘live system’ otherwise there could be ambiguity.

I limped into work. Having learned from the driver that there’d been a ‘points failure’ at Kennington. Phah! Bloody points! Kennington! Phah!

Coming home I checked to make sure they’d fixed ’em. Sent a geezer with a hi-viz jacket, hard hat and soldering iron to do the biz, only to learn that the Northern Line now, is suspended in another part, due to signal failure at Archway. On ‘my bit’. Where I need to be. But by circuitous re-routing and clever planning (called ‘a bus’) I made it home.

This morning it was worse. Much worse. Not sure if this was the points or the signals but they suspended the entire Northern Line south of Camden. Which is basically, the bit everyone needs to get to. But its ok. They apologised for ‘any inconvenience’ so that’s fine. As was the clear and concise messages, notices and instructions. Which said, essentially, ‘huh??’

Meanwhile, the tennis brilliant this year, which I say every year, but it really is. The cricket is reaching its climax. And the women’s world cup finished with… with… with the end. And it was ok, and it was physical and brutal and… almost exciting at times. But as good (as the real thing? shhhhhh)? In a ‘pay equality’ kind’a way? Hmmmm…

Happy Northern Line

A xxxx