Lesson for the Day: How to Turn Sheep into Wolves

Last night. Going home time. Pouring with rain. Central London.

Delays on the Central Line. Problem at Mile End or Newbury Park, depending on source of information. It happens.

Passengers prevented from entering Tottenham Court Road Underground Station ("TCR") due to overcrowded platforms, caused by aforementioned delays. Sensible course of action- I am sure it is all planned for, risk assessments will have taken place etc etc.

One of the entrances to TCR Station consists of a long foot tunnel runing from Charing Cross Road and underneath fountains by the side of the Centrepoint, a landmark tall building. At the end of the tunnel are concertina style gates at the top of the steps into the underground station.

Yesterday evening at about 17:40 the gates at the end of the tunnel were closed by London Underground staff and regular tannoy announcements were made apologising for the delay to journeys.

No passengers were being allowed through the gatelines and by 18:00 a queue of approximately 200 people were waiting at the concertina gate at the Charing Cross Road tunnel entrance.

It then became apparent, certainly by about 18:05 (vision was a little restricted) that passengers were being allowed to enter the station. A reasonable number of people had by this time been waiting 25 minutes, like good little sheep waiting patiently to get home.

What happened next?

A member of staff (clearly a reject from any London Underground school of Customer Service) wandered round the corner and looked up to see the dozens of faces peering through the closed barrier. We politely queried (and it WAS polite) when the gate would be opened. Rather than saying "now" or "in a minute" he then produced a temporary canvas barrier belt and placed it across the foot of the stairs. We told him that there were a couple of hundred people waiting to come down the stairs- he shrugged his shoulders and simply said "You'll have to use entrance three."

In the space of two seconds the oaf employee managed to turn 200 queuing london sheep commuters into 200 extremely hacked off commuters, I suspect many of whom would have gladly chewed his head off.

By the time I had negotiated the busy road junction above the station, the concourse was about the quietest I have ever seen seen it during peak hours, the half wit member of staff had disappeared, the Central Line platform was thankfully uncrowded and the train that appeared within seconds was only half full.

Absolutely no evidence of a sensible reason for the entrance at which we had waited, needing to remain closed for Health & Safety reasons, or indeed for any other reason.

Another member of staff in the ticket area did at least appear to take on our concerns at the total lack of empathy with waiting passengers displayed by his colleague.

The man concerned is a twat.

This rant, even in its current incoherent form, has been severely moderated for intemperate language. This is in the knowledge that my words are occasionally read by members of my family.