existentialist
Tired and unemotional
Or while lovingly fingering the blade of an axe.
F*cking nightmare of a bastard commute
- Thread starter Onket
- Start date
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
There was some serious incident at the Brixton Hill end of Christchurch Road this evening that resulted in the major thoroughfare that is the South Circular being closed both ways.
Before the advent of LTNs this would have resulted in nothing more than a 10-minute delay for the through traffic. But thanks to the two-headed monster that is the Upper Tulse Hill and the gargantuan Leigham Court LTN combo, such scenario now involves a half hour detour to cover less than a mile. As well as a gridlock affecting tens of thousands of local residents over a very large area, plus the environmental consequences of both gridlocked traffic, and hundreds if not thousands of vehicles having to take a three mile diversion route to rejoin the main road a mere half mile away from the closed off spot.
So yeah, a lovely evening commute for all concerned. The only consolation was that the privileged residents of the preposterously unjustifiable and vast Leighham Court LTN got a taste of it all, as hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles trying to bypass the blocked main road drove onto their exclusive gated roads back and forth for hours as they found they weren’t allowed to drive through at the other end and had to double back.
Not against all LTNs (in fact the Railton Road one gets my full approval), but what a fucking ill-thought disgrace the Tulse Hill ones are.
Before the advent of LTNs this would have resulted in nothing more than a 10-minute delay for the through traffic. But thanks to the two-headed monster that is the Upper Tulse Hill and the gargantuan Leigham Court LTN combo, such scenario now involves a half hour detour to cover less than a mile. As well as a gridlock affecting tens of thousands of local residents over a very large area, plus the environmental consequences of both gridlocked traffic, and hundreds if not thousands of vehicles having to take a three mile diversion route to rejoin the main road a mere half mile away from the closed off spot.
So yeah, a lovely evening commute for all concerned. The only consolation was that the privileged residents of the preposterously unjustifiable and vast Leighham Court LTN got a taste of it all, as hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles trying to bypass the blocked main road drove onto their exclusive gated roads back and forth for hours as they found they weren’t allowed to drive through at the other end and had to double back.
Not against all LTNs (in fact the Railton Road one gets my full approval), but what a fucking ill-thought disgrace the Tulse Hill ones are.
Dorking now only has one train an hour to Waterloo, but at least it has two (slower) trains to Victoria. I mean, these are a shit option for me because they then require a 15 minute tube ride though London rather than a quick hop into the City, but the option is there.
In the morning, for example, you now have the Waterloo at 7:30 and the Victoria at 7:36 and 8:07 before back to the Waterloo one at 8:30.
This is pretty shit because I always used to get the 8:00 Waterloo to get into work for about 9:25. But I suck it up and either get up early enough to catch the 7:30 or just get the 8:07 Victoria train and get in at about 9:50
Only, this morning, having already decided to do the latter, I checked the train app and found that the 8:07 had been cancelled. So Dorking — a major commuter hub — had no trains to London at all between 7:36 and 8:30, which should be prime commute time.
Properly shit.
Instead, I drove the extra distance to Leatherhead station, which is another 10km away. That has the extra Waterloo train per hour (as well as all the ones from Dorking), so I could catch an 8:08. That’s when I discovered that while a return to Waterloo costs £25 from Dorking, it’s only £18.10 from Leatherhead.
That extra 10km each way costs £6.90.
The petrol even in these expensive times costs about £2.50.
How can the marginal cost of a longer journey cost almost three times the price by train than by car? How can this be justified when we want to encourage public transport use? And that’s on top of having completely hollowed out the service and then cancelled what’s left?
The public transport system, like all our other public services, is utterly broken.
In the morning, for example, you now have the Waterloo at 7:30 and the Victoria at 7:36 and 8:07 before back to the Waterloo one at 8:30.
This is pretty shit because I always used to get the 8:00 Waterloo to get into work for about 9:25. But I suck it up and either get up early enough to catch the 7:30 or just get the 8:07 Victoria train and get in at about 9:50
Only, this morning, having already decided to do the latter, I checked the train app and found that the 8:07 had been cancelled. So Dorking — a major commuter hub — had no trains to London at all between 7:36 and 8:30, which should be prime commute time.
Properly shit.
Instead, I drove the extra distance to Leatherhead station, which is another 10km away. That has the extra Waterloo train per hour (as well as all the ones from Dorking), so I could catch an 8:08. That’s when I discovered that while a return to Waterloo costs £25 from Dorking, it’s only £18.10 from Leatherhead.
That extra 10km each way costs £6.90.
The petrol even in these expensive times costs about £2.50.
How can the marginal cost of a longer journey cost almost three times the price by train than by car? How can this be justified when we want to encourage public transport use? And that’s on top of having completely hollowed out the service and then cancelled what’s left?
The public transport system, like all our other public services, is utterly broken.
locomotive
come on baby, do the locomotion
Modernization, init.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
How busy are those trains compared with pre-pandemic, would you say?
It varies, frankly. Some days, they’re more rammed than ever. Others, much emptier. As a general note, though: even when they’re much emptier, I would say they are occupied to a bit bring comfortable maximum by the time they’re into zone 3 or 2, ie all the seats are full with many standing up. They just aren’t at stupid levels of claustrophobia.
It’s also a bit chicken and egg. I know lots of people who are seriously put off going in because of how awful the train service now is.
teuchter
je suis teuchter
Yes, that chicken and egg situation is always a killer for public transport.
I don't think it's ok to cut services like this so don't take any of the following as a defence of it, but have you considered Thameslink options at all? Depending on where you need to get to in the city they might provide additional choices without needing to use the tube.
One route is changing at Sutton or Epsom onto the Thameslink services that run in to Blackfriars, City Thameslink & Farringdon via Elephant. The other would involve the North Downs line (from Dorking Deepdene or Dorking West) and changing at Redhill onto the fast Thameslink services that run in via London Bridge.
I realise that changing is never desirable because then each journey relies on two services not being cancelled/delayed rather than one. And having a bunch of journey options that don't start from the same station means that if something's cancelled at the last minute you can't easily flip to the other station.
Were you to try something like that I can recommend this slightly obscure app:
Commuter Train Check (Live Times & Journey Plan) – Apps on Google Play
Quickly and easily find out live train times and plan train journeys in the UK.
which will let you set up multiple departure & arrival destinations for a certain journey, and then show you live info for all of them alongside each other so you can make a decision at a given moment prior to reaching a station.
The price difference between Dorking and Leatherhead seems pretty much proportional to the distance travelled. So, the £ per mile of either option is similar. I agree it shouldn't be loads cheaper by car. Of course I think that the rail fares should be decreased, but also the cost of private road travel increased and used to subsidise public transport.
Ta, that’s all really useful. I didn’t really know about Thameslink at al, so I’ll look into that.
The fragmentation all makes life much more difficult than it feels like it should be. They reduce services from Waterloo and justify it by saying you can take a train to somewhere else and change at eg Epsom but when things go wrong, there’s no attempt to triage the service to allow for people that are now relying on a train change. This means a 30 minute delay can become an hour’s delay. It all means that what should be a really straightforward journey is stressful instead.
I would prioritise an integrated public transport system for public funding and not expect it to pay directly for itself. The cost is more than justified by the indirect savings that are made across the whole economy.
The fragmentation all makes life much more difficult than it feels like it should be. They reduce services from Waterloo and justify it by saying you can take a train to somewhere else and change at eg Epsom but when things go wrong, there’s no attempt to triage the service to allow for people that are now relying on a train change. This means a 30 minute delay can become an hour’s delay. It all means that what should be a really straightforward journey is stressful instead.
I would prioritise an integrated public transport system for public funding and not expect it to pay directly for itself. The cost is more than justified by the indirect savings that are made across the whole economy.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
After thirty years of commuting to our main Chelsea shop, I have been moved to our Mayfair joint this week.
Even on a motorcycle, which is largely immune to traffic congestion, the commute experience so much worse it is an eye opener. Full of angry cunts taking offence at any road user overtaking them even if totally respectfully and legally. Most of whom driving 100k supercars, of course.
Still, even after just two days I am already sick of seeing such supercars blatantly parking on double yellows or taking most of a motorcycle-exclusive bay, thus preventing at least 4-5 bikes from parking on said space, without more serious consequences than a fixed fine. Westminster Council doesn’t seem to have the balls to clamp let alone tow away such illegally parked cars, so what’s a £130 fine to a billionaire cunt?
I am seriously considering printing ‘YOU CAN’T PARK HERE, YOU FUCKING BELLEND ’ on A4-sized sticky labels and keep them in my bike so I can plaster them right over the driver’s side of the windscreen. No criminal damage claims AFAIAC, and it might make the multimillionaire oxygen thief in question think twice before parking like a cunt. Or at the least, cause them massive annoyance and inconvenience.
Even on a motorcycle, which is largely immune to traffic congestion, the commute experience so much worse it is an eye opener. Full of angry cunts taking offence at any road user overtaking them even if totally respectfully and legally. Most of whom driving 100k supercars, of course.
Still, even after just two days I am already sick of seeing such supercars blatantly parking on double yellows or taking most of a motorcycle-exclusive bay, thus preventing at least 4-5 bikes from parking on said space, without more serious consequences than a fixed fine. Westminster Council doesn’t seem to have the balls to clamp let alone tow away such illegally parked cars, so what’s a £130 fine to a billionaire cunt?
I am seriously considering printing ‘YOU CAN’T PARK HERE, YOU FUCKING BELLEND ’ on A4-sized sticky labels and keep them in my bike so I can plaster them right over the driver’s side of the windscreen. No criminal damage claims AFAIAC, and it might make the multimillionaire oxygen thief in question think twice before parking like a cunt. Or at the least, cause them massive annoyance and inconvenience.
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
I am this angry but with facetimers at 6.30 fucking am on my morning bus.
Be a shame if they found themselves with something like this stuck to the window
www.temu.com
Prank Stickers Bad Parking Stickers Zone - Temu United
Check out this 50pcs prank stickers bad parking stickers zone writeable multiple warning for car windows glass paper material single use oblong shape on Temu. like other Office & School Supplies products.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
I’m sure annoying as fuck, though at least not posing an increased risk to your wellbeing.
I guess partly it’s due to my earlier journey start. I didn’t need to leave the house until 9.30 when going to our Chelsea location, which probably doesn’t even qualify as rush hour territory. Now I am leaving earlier, and the difference in the levels of aggression is astounding.
This applies in my experience to any and all modes of transportation used. On the few occasions over the years when we had an early morning meeting and I had to be in Chelsea for 8.30 instead of 10 am, the difference In behaviour by other road users around me was flabbergasting. And I include everyone from car drivers to bikers to even cyclists. I used to cycle to work for several years, and even my fellow cyclists on an 8.30 am commute would be completely different beasts to my usual 9.45 am fellow commuters.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
As irritating as it is, it’s not a question of the council not having the balls to clamp them. Vehicles can no longer be clamped or removed for parking violations unless they are obstructing the flow of traffic, which may get them towed, or untaxed or uninsured, which earns them a clamp.
As a result, some arseholes simply park wherever they like and treat the resulting ticket as a £65 parking fee. You’ll also notice that many of these cars are on foreign plates, especially Middle Eastern ones in the case of the supercars around Mayfair and Knightsbridge. These fuckers don’t even bother paying the tickets as there’s no efficient mechanism for the councils to track and claim from overseas owners.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
One thing that could be done with these Middle Eastern cars is enforce the fines as they try to leave the country, most come here for our summer and return in the autumn, they need export papers so it shouldn't be too hard to stop them at the airport and impound them until the fines are all paid. That way they would lose the slot on the plane and need to buy a new one, these cost around £50k and are not refundable, so even for these gazillionaires that's a bit lumpy. But of course won't happen, cos UK.
Last edited:
teuchter
je suis teuchter
And for a related issue:Be a shame if they found themselves with something like this stuck to the window
Prank Stickers Bad Parking Stickers Zone - Temu United
Check out this 50pcs prank stickers bad parking stickers zone writeable multiple warning for car windows glass paper material single use oblong shape on Temu. like other Office & School Supplies products.
PAVEMENT PARKER - Endangering People on pavements. Stickers for bad parkers X 20 | eBay
These labels are thermally printed (there is no ink to run) on paper which is difficult to remove in one piece from, say, a car windscreen or paintwork. not that we would ever condone such practice.
www.ebay.co.uk
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
£65 a day for parking in Mayfair is an absolute bargain. Cunts.
Similar threads
