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Fetch me a Guinness and keep your book
Thursday, April 14th, 2011 11:45 amLadies and Gentlemen, I think we have a new record. I am checking with the ghost of Norris McWhirter, but I am pretty sure he will agree.
I got into the office this morning at 10.35. I shut our front door in Ilford at 8.16. Allowing for the stop in Sainsbury’s to buy a newspaper and milk for my coffee, that is just short of two and a quarter hours to travel about 13-14 miles (Mind you, if you ask Google the distance, it tells you that it is 3,663 miles – apparently Victoria Station is in Maryland, USA1, so I guess that’s pretty speedy).
Being a minute or two late leaving the house, I took advantage of an empty road to nip across the road and catch the approaching bus, so I got to the station a bit earlier than usual. Nonetheless, because East Anglia Rail likes to keep trains running in a certain order, we left the station 11 minutes late so that we could leave after other late running trains, even though it would have been easy enough to switch them in the schedules. That was annoying but no big deal.
Arriving at Stratford, I changed as usual, to the Jubilee Line to get to Westminster. At this stage, all was well. The train left on time and we sailed on to West Ham, which significantly, is the last realistic chance I have to change my mind regarding routes) and then stopped on the track between West Ham and Canning Town. And stayed stopped for 40 minutes. The train ahead of us had broken down. The next delay was at Canning Town itself, when the station staff had to remove the poor sap(s) who had fainted on the train while it was stationary for 40 minutes and other passengers had pulled the alarm.
Ho hum.
Eventually, we set off again – a bit stop start as the service slowly came back to life, but we were moving. Until we ground to a further halt between Waterloo and Westminster. Apparently some of the safety doors on the platform had failed and the train on platform couldn’t move until this was fixed.
London really does have third world aspirations. I’m not making it up!
1To add to the fun, there is a Maryland station between Ilford and Liverpool Street, too.
I got into the office this morning at 10.35. I shut our front door in Ilford at 8.16. Allowing for the stop in Sainsbury’s to buy a newspaper and milk for my coffee, that is just short of two and a quarter hours to travel about 13-14 miles (Mind you, if you ask Google the distance, it tells you that it is 3,663 miles – apparently Victoria Station is in Maryland, USA1, so I guess that’s pretty speedy).
Being a minute or two late leaving the house, I took advantage of an empty road to nip across the road and catch the approaching bus, so I got to the station a bit earlier than usual. Nonetheless, because East Anglia Rail likes to keep trains running in a certain order, we left the station 11 minutes late so that we could leave after other late running trains, even though it would have been easy enough to switch them in the schedules. That was annoying but no big deal.
Arriving at Stratford, I changed as usual, to the Jubilee Line to get to Westminster. At this stage, all was well. The train left on time and we sailed on to West Ham, which significantly, is the last realistic chance I have to change my mind regarding routes) and then stopped on the track between West Ham and Canning Town. And stayed stopped for 40 minutes. The train ahead of us had broken down. The next delay was at Canning Town itself, when the station staff had to remove the poor sap(s) who had fainted on the train while it was stationary for 40 minutes and other passengers had pulled the alarm.
Ho hum.
Eventually, we set off again – a bit stop start as the service slowly came back to life, but we were moving. Until we ground to a further halt between Waterloo and Westminster. Apparently some of the safety doors on the platform had failed and the train on platform couldn’t move until this was fixed.
London really does have third world aspirations. I’m not making it up!
1To add to the fun, there is a Maryland station between Ilford and Liverpool Street, too.
