What a waste of time

I regularly have to travel over to Canary Wharf for meetings.

Today's meeting lasted 25 minutes.

I traveled for two hours to get there and it took me two and a half hours to get home.

The Jubilee Line was suspended on the way, which meant that I diverted from Baker Street along the Hammersmith & City Line to Moorgate, then took the Northern Line one stop to Bank and then the DLR out to the East End.

Coming back, I did catch the Jubilee Line, but the gaps in service were such that I missed my train.

I know that dialing in or video conferencing ought to be the name of the game (the meeting room is set up for that), but it isn't, and my boss is rather self centred.

Bottom line - I do as I'm told!

West End of Central Line to Close for Weekend of 21 & 22 November 2009

This weekend (21 November 2009 & 22 November 2009) there is no Central Line at all west of Marble Arch. That is a huge chunk of the Central Line that will not be working due to engineering work.

If you are traveling out from Central London heading to the West Ruislip branch this weekend, the advice is to travel to Willesden Junction on the Bakerloo Line. You will then be able to pick up one of a couple of rail replacement bus services.

If you are heading for Ealing Broadway, there is a replacement bus that starts at Sheperds Bush Market (Hammersmith & City Line), which also picks up at North Acton (where the West Ruislip branch buses will be able to drop you off to change buses). I think I'd rather travel out on the District Line or catch a First Great Western train from Paddington to Ealing Broadway.

Chiltern Railways also offer a regular but infrequent service to West Ruislip and South Ruslip from London Marylebone. There is also a half hourly service for most of Saturday from Paddington to Greenford. Do check National Rail times before you travel on a big train.

There are loads of alternative train, tube and bus routes - I can't possibly summarise them all, but it could be a good opportunity to check the accuracy of the tfl Journey Planner. I've just run a sample journey through it (work to where I used to live, on Saturday, and it was spot on for that sample).

I am glad that I chose to go to the Westfield Shopping Centre last Sunday and not this coming weekend.

The last week

This time last week (Sunday), I had safely returned from Gatwick airport, unpacked, put the washing machine on and was about to go grocery shopping. Unfortunately I fell asleep for hours in the afternoon which wasn't in the Master Plan.

On Monday, despite still being officially on holiday, I started to plough through 17 days of work emails. I also edited down my holiday pictures and uploaded them for printing.

On Tuesday I went to work and stayed happy and smiley all day.

On Wednesday I had an early meeting at Canary Wharf so had to catch a stupid o'clock train to get there on time. My single meeting then turned into several so I only just made my 3 o'clock meeting back in the West End on-time . Stayed happy and smiley all day. Ordered new broadband package.

On Thursday I really didn't want to get up. I did. Slightly less happy and smiley today but still good. People seemed to have realised that my endless weeks away from the office (4 1/2 weeks out of 6) are over and have started to form queues at my desk. Leave early, to work from home for a specific purpose. Get home to find that my broadband order has been cancelled and then spend most of afternoon doing the BT shuffle. Pick up holiday snaps, go shopping, spend a mini-fortune on new home-office chair.

On Friday got to office early. Received text message from BT confirming that my re-order of broadband from yesterday had not been cancelled. Act as query resolution point for most of the day, leave on time, out for curry with friends, home late.

On Saturday woke up at 0935 with sun streaming in through gap in curtains. Go to post office, do shopping, plant two clumps of nerines (very long story), attack buddleia, take ex-buddlea to tip, go to see Gran Torino the latest (and possibly last) Clint Eastwood Film. Good day.

And so the cycle continues...

Public transport: Chiltern Railways, Bakerloo Line, Jubilee Line, Docklands Light Railway, Central Line, Hammersmith and City Line and Metropolitan Line.

Christmas & New Year Travel Guide for London

Transport for London (aka tfl) have today published a Travel Guide to getting around London over Christmas and New year.

It weighs in at a hefty 2Mb and is in pdf format. For now the guide is available here, but if they move or change the file name, please let me know.

A summary is:

• Christmas Eve 2008: Most stuff finishes early
• Christmas Day 2008: London stops
• Boxing Day 2008: London starts to get going again, except for the Jubilee Line (no service Friday, Saturday or Sunday), the Metropolitan Line (no service) and the Waterloo & City Line. There are also other station closures on the Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City and Northern Lines.

• There are also pages and pages of guidance should you be in London on New Year's Eve.

It isn't possible to summarise here all the travel changes detailed in a 25 page guide, so I recommend you obtain a copy if you intend to travel in London over the holiday period.

I note that there is no mention of a corporate sponsor for the free late night travel arrangements on 31st December. The economy really must be in a bad way.

Edit: 2 January 2009. Tfl have removed the guide from their website. At present I do not have any suitably anonymous webspace to host the document. If you can host, please let me know - if you want a copy emailed to you, please let me know. Thank you.

Wood Lane - I think I did it?

Goodness me. Purely by accident, I think I took a photograph of the new Wood Lane station on the Hammersmith & City Line, on the day it opened. I know it's a bad picture, but nevertheless I am happy that I accidentally got the picture on opening day.

Today's tfl press release simply confirms that the station is open - not that it actually opened on Sunday.

Another picture of somewhere else coming up soon... I bet you can't wait!

Clever Branding

Whenever I have family round, which I did on Sunday, I always buy a carton of Innocent Fruit Smoothie. It's for the kids, but not really.

The drinks are yummy, though not cheap. The cartons are very clever - they are witty, often carry jokey comments and give the impression of beguiling innocence.

Of course I don't expect the folk at "Fruit Towers" (I kid you not) to be all folksey and sucking on straw. I suspect that, to the contrary there are some very clever minds, outsourced product suppliers and a not insignificant marketing budget.

As I was squashing down the empty carton just now, I noticed that the latest bright idea is to print a secret code on the side . Entering that code on a website means that a tree is then planted on your behalf. It's all jolly clever - if over time the 'tree count' below changes, it will show that the Innocent people have mastered technology as well as making yummy drinks (and probably lots of money as well).

A superb example of successful branding.

Fruit Towers is actually in Shepherds Bush in West London- still at least they are nearer to Goldhawk Road station (Hammersmith and City Line) than to the currently closed Shepherds Bush Central Line station at the far end of Shepherds Bush Green.

Circle Line & Hammersmith & City Line both Suspended

This morning the Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines are each totally suspended. In addition there is no service on the District Line between High Street Kensington and Edgware Road.

This blog is not constantly updated, so please visit the tfl website for up to date information.

The Real Time Map shows the huge impact of these suspensions.

It is apparantly all down to 'Health & Safety'. The BBC website states the issue as being around the "Traction Brake Controller". I don't work on the railway, so may be wrong, but I think this is (or is connected to) the "Deadman's Handle".

It looks as though I may be on the Central Line today!

A Fun Morning on the Underground

Large chunks of the underground were thrown into chaos this morning due to "Emergency Engineering Work" somewhere in the Whitechapel area.

The District Line had a chunk missing, the Hammersmith & City Line was suspended East of Moorgate, The Metropolitan Line was suspended East of Baker Street and the Circle Line was suspended.

I understand that there was a minor tunnel collapse before the trains started running (I mean MINOR) and the services were up and running by about Noon.

I diverted to the Bakerloo & Central Lines for the first time this week, only to find the both lines exceptionally busy (passengers have to go somewhere), not helped by a Bakerloo Line train being taken out of service at Regents Park.

So, What's Been Going On Then?

Last Saturday's post was posted 'on the hoof' from my Father's laptop while sat in my Grandmother's front room. All a bit of fun really to prove to Grandma that she was 'On The Internet'.

I needn't have bothered, because I subsequently remembered another family blog with loads of pictures. My plan was to subsequently remove the post- I then realised that that could be construed as wrong, it is however simply an example of the way that social blogging works. I have however abbreviated some specific proper names down to ensure that this remains a virtually anonymous blog.

No that isn't a challenge to 'Out' my identity (Hercule Poirot would have no difficulty in that), it is just the way I prefer things to be.

So, what have I been up to?

• Sunday: Well, following a family birthday party in the North-East of England last Saturday, the rest of my immediate family left for home on Sunday morning. After lunch with Grandma in a local hotel we went for a ride up Swaledale and Arkengarthdale (in the hire car) stopping for a couple of minutes at the Tan Hill Inn. The Tan Hill is Britain's highest pub at 1,732ft above sea level. I know it might not seem very high to those used to continental mountains, but it really is in the middle of nowhere. Swaledale is where I come from and I get quite emotional even thinking about it. I am a country bumpkin at heart and very proud of it.
• Monday: I was set to work digging up sundry rose bushes, followed by the digging, weeding and bonemealing of the raspberries. Honour done. After lunch we went on a monster drive of the North Yorkshire Moors taking in Saltburn on the way we went to Whitby, Goathland, Pickering, Helmsley and then back via Thirsk and Northallerton. Four hours and about 130 miles. Fantastic scenery.
• Tuesday saw me on a lunchtime flight from Durham Tees Valley back to Heathrow, the 140 bus home and then (via the Central Line) to the London Palladium to see The Sound of Music with my parents. This is a good week!
• Wednesday was a chill out day, though in the afternoon I went out to leafy Buckinghamshire (and also not so leafy High Wycombe) on Chiltern Railways. All will become clear in due course.
• Thursday was a day of domestics with a quick trip to Ealing (Central Line and First Great Western) thrown in for good luck.
• Friday was a correspondence day with a late shop thrown in (repeat of Thursday).
• Saturday is well... now and I'm still at home.

Well if that hasn't done enough to shake off the die hard readers, I am not sure what to do next!

Pip pip!

Great Portland Street - Customer Communications

This post relates to my personal experiences yesterday evening at specific stations on the London Underground. It is intended to be an illustration of the sort of thing that happens day in, day out, across the system. It is not a complaint about any individual or team of individuals who may or may not have been responsible.*

Station 1 (Great Portland Street)

• Automated announcement (female voice) "A normal service is operating on all London Underground lines"
• Recorded announcement (male voice) "Due to engineering works, Great Portland street Station will be closed after 10pm..."
• Automated announcement (female voice) "Due to staff shortages, delays are reported between xxx and xxx on the Hammersmith & City Line"
• Automated announcement (female voice) "A normal service is operating on all London Underground lines"
• Westbound dot-matrix train describers "Train 1: Delayed, Train 2: Delayed"
• Train then arrives.

Station 2 (Baker Street) Two minutes later

• Announcement by platform staff "Delays are occurring on the Hammersmith & City and Circle Lines. Mind the doors."

Station 3 (Edgware Road) Four minutes later

• Comment to member of station staff "Having fun tonight?"
• Response "Allow extra time for your journey tomorrow morning, it will be worse." I will not repeat the next sentence, but it referred to a member of staff and the item within which Father Christmas often carries Christmas presents.

This morning's status on the tfl website "HAMMERSMITH & CITY LINE: Minor delays are occurring due to non-availability of staff. Message received 05:59am"

1. The automated lady at GPS was clearly being inconsistent, at best, with her status announcements.
2. Do we think that 'der management' on the H&C line may be experiencing a bit of a problem with industrial relations?

*Why the big disclaimer. Simply because I wouldn't want to upset one of my regular readers... you know who you are!