F*cking nightmare of a bastard commute

[davesgcr]

Got to Shepherd's Bush last night - signal problems at Shepherd's Bush so no Overground trains.
Got to Clapham Junction this morning - signal problems at Willesden Junction so no Overground trains.

"Your tickets will be valid on alternate routes"

Check Oyster and I've been charged £7.50 to get home, instead of £3.40 and £7.50 to get in this morning.

To test the bounds of reality - the problem is salt contamination (yes in NW10) - buggering the track circuits - so no signals (despite some hardy souls jet washing the track all night - to not much avail) -

 

[tommers]

Yeah, its still shut. "Too much salt on the line" heard it all now.

What does that even mean? Has there been a spill or something?

 

[davesgcr]

Yeah, its still shut. "Too much salt on the line" heard it all now.

What does that even mean? Has there been a spill or something?

Obviously the signalling works of electric currents - somehow - the track has been contaminated in the Mitre Bridge area - salty brine conducts electricity - signals go back to red. Trains cannot run. It is not incompetence - somehow the system has been compromised - and people were out all night trying to sort it. Merely passing on information and actions - (it is quite rare though )

 

[tommers]

Obviously the signalling works of electric currents - somehow - the track has been contaminated in the Mitre Bridge area - salty brine conducts electricity - signals go back to red. Trains cannot run. It is not incompetence - somehow the system has been compromised - and people were out all night trying to sort it. Merely passing on information and actions - (it is quite rare though )

No, thanks for the info. I'm sure they're working hard. I just wondered how that would happen. I know you get salt when it rains (as my bike can testify) but never heard of that one before.

 

[davesgcr]

No, thanks for the info. I'm sure they're working hard. I just wondered how that would happen. I know you get salt when it rains (as my bike can testify) but never heard of that one before.

A level crossing was involved - so a gritting lorry leaking a load I suspect ....

 

[Boppity]

Working in London tomorrow. Nooooooooooo.

 

[Hocus Eye.]

No, thanks for the info. I'm sure they're working hard. I just wondered how that would happen. I know you get salt when it rains (as my bike can testify) but never heard of that one before.

I would like to hear your bike testifying to getting salt when it rains. Rain is not salty. Salted roads might spray up salty water from tyres after gritting when wet but it is not the rain that is salty.

 

[Onket]

Working in London tomorrow. Nooooooooooo.

Good luck!

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I would like to hear your bike testifying to getting salt when it rains. Rain is not salty. Salted roads might spray up salty water from tyres after gritting when wet but it is not the rain that is salty.

[pedant]
Rainwater is very slightly salty, as a lot if seawater is blown into to atmosphere. When the water evaporates the remaining salt crystals form nucleation particles that are an essential part of cloud formation.
[/pedant]

 

[5t3IIa]

Wasn't there some frost last week? Perhaps there was some salting and it then rained and swilled it into the signals?

 

[Boppity]

Good luck!

I actually had a fairly okay day of it, walked as much as possible to avoid the tubes.

Although at 6pm on my way to Euston it was manic.

Safely on my train home now! Phew what a long day!

 

[kabbes]

Dorking train AGAIN effectively cancelled yesterday. I mean, it eventually left Waterloo 20 minutes late and arrived 30 minutes late, so it might as well have been cancelled.

That train is cancelled on a shamefully regular basis. A 90 minute commute suddenly turns into a 2 hour commute.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

This is how trains should be all the time - a carriage for each passenger.

 

[Onket]

Dorking train AGAIN effectively cancelled yesterday. I mean, it eventually left Waterloo 20 minutes late and arrived 30 minutes late, so it might as well have been cancelled.

That train is cancelled on a shamefully regular basis. A 90 minute commute suddenly turns into a 2 hour commute.

90 mins seems quite a long time to go from Waterloo to Dorking anyway, doesn't it?

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Dorking train AGAIN effectively cancelled yesterday. I mean, it eventually left Waterloo 20 minutes late and arrived 30 minutes late, so it might as well have been cancelled.

That train is cancelled on a shamefully regular basis. A 90 minute commute suddenly turns into a 2 hour commute.

i have always thought that 'dorking' ought to be a slang term for something rude. as in 'i gave him a good dorking last night'

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

90 mins seems quite a long time to go from Waterloo to Dorking anyway, doesn't it?

I believe the venerable kabbes is including travel from Docklands and onwards to his hillbilly mansion in his 90 minutes, m'lud.

 

[kabbes]

I believe the venerable kabbes is including travel from Docklands and onwards to his hillbilly mansion in his 90 minutes, m'lud.

I am indeed, but I am in the City now, not the Docklands. That used to take 75 minutes when I started the commute 7 or 8 years ago but I now count on it taking 90. Except when it takes 2 hours, of course.

The Waterloo-Dorking train itself is supposed to take 45-55 minutes (and typically 52 minutes) but in practice it almost always takes over an hour. And that's a joke in itself. The equivalent train from, say, Euston to Watford takes well less than 30 minutes and Watford is its first stop. But south of the river, we only seem to get trains that stop at every last blasted station, no matter how unused. And on top of that, we get 2 trains an hour from Waterloo to Dorking, rather than the 4, 6 or even 8 that might be expected.

If the trains were half empty, you could understand it. But these trains are generally standing room only well before they've even got a third of the way to Waterloo and by the time they get into Wimbledon, say, it's a real crush.

The whole system is massively oversubscribed. And it's getting worse.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

It is shite, plus you have those nasty red trains with the un-comfy seats, at least when my train does arrive it's a nice white one with comfy seats, a nice chap selling beers and free wi-fi

 

[Winot]

i have always thought that 'dorking' ought to be a slang term for something rude. as in 'i gave him a good dorking last night'

See also "Mr Jolly lives next door":

- Take him out. Right out.
- Right out? Like Dorking?

 

[kabbes]

A dorking is a type of cock, as every good local schoolkid knows.

 

[Onket]

Overslept. At station waiting for the 06:50 but should have been on the 05:33.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

Train running to time but the lights keep going out and there's a bloke with very hairy hands reading the Daily Mail next to me.

 

[ChrisFilter]

Overslept. At station waiting for the 06:50 but should have been on the 05:33.

I admire your fortitude. I struggle to get up for the 7:56am, and that gets me in late.

 

[kabbes]

I get the 07:31. I can't even imagine getting to the station before 6am every morning.

 

[farmerbarleymow]

I get the 07:31. I can't even imagine getting to the station before 6am every morning.

I much prefer getting the early train as it's lovely and quiet at that time of day.

 

[Onket]

I get the 07:31. I can't even imagine getting to the station before 6am every morning.

See thread title.

 

[kabbes]

Train arrived at Waterloo 15 minutes late. Waterloo and City line broken down, had to take Jubilee to London Bridge and walk from there instead. Arrived 30 minutes later than "usual". Total commute time: over 2 hours. Again.

 

[ChrisFilter]

I think it's the lack of onward journey that makes my 90 min commute palatable.

20 mins drive/walk to the station
50 mins on the train
20 mins walk to the office

Only one point of failure, and with trains every 15 mins it's not so bad. Were the tube or a connecting train involved I doubt I could hack it.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

in the words of reginald perrin, 22 minutes late, signal failure at waterloo.

blargh.

 

[davesgcr]

As opposed to "escaped chimpanzee at Chessington South" !