Random things about a randomly picked subject. Today: transport in London. And some fess up Friday too.
- I travel the Circle line to work nearly every day. If you hop on at St. James Park at around 8.15 am in the morning and you pick the front carriage, chances for a seat are 88.12%. Just so you know. Sit and read your book. My journey looks like the above drawing. What does yours look like?
- I think the Oyster card is a brilliant invention.
- My favourite busses are the old route masters, still running on line 9 and 15. I love that you have to enter on the back and that there is no back door. And that you have to pull a cord which rings a bell when you want to get off. And they are just beautiful.
- Imagine Bill Nighy doing the announcements on Notting Hill Gate tube station and hear him say things like “Mind the gap”, “Let the passengers off the train first.” or “The next Circle Line train will arrive in 6 minutes”. I would never leave the station.
- Passengers enter the Tube system at a rate of 146,000 people an hour. A lot of those passengers are in a really bad mood in the morning.
- There are 268 tube stations in London. I have far from been on all of them. After they closed the Cafe, I am not sure I still have a favourite tube station. I like quiet stations, St. James’ Park is not that bad really. It certainly has class and you don’t have to go deep down to get to the platform.
- Victoria is the busiest tube station when looking at number of passengers each year: 76 million. Now you understand why I try to avoid taking the tube from there. Luckily I live close to both St. James’ Park and Pimlico station too.
- The total lenght of the tube network is 408km. Only 46% of that is in tunnels. That is kind of annoying because that means that people grab their mobile phones and start making loud phone calls in the tube on about 54% of the network.
- I have several times seen mice wandering about near the tracks.
- I twice had to leave a bus because it broke down. I once had to leave a tube train because it broke down (luckily it was at a station!).
- I have often considered doing a complete circle in the Circle Line, just for fun. I might actually just go and do it, after the summer, when the evenings get dark again.
- The fessing part: I have not written anything substantial. I am even struggling to keep this blog updated regularly. I hope this phase (as in “where did all the inspiration go?”) passes because I am pretty tired of it.
OK, now show me your journey to work!
I take my Thermos filled with coffee and walk up the stairs. I cross the landing and open my office door. Traveling time: 15 seconds !
How easy is that !
Have a nice weekend.
Well you are definitely someone who is being very friendly for the environment then! :) Have a good weekend too!
I ride my bicycle to work, which is some 10 kms to the northeast. That means tail wind in the morning… but head wind in the afternoon. :-( I work Monday to Friday, so I get plenty of exercise. :-)
@Marieke – is the wind that predictable every day? :) I really miss biking here, but it is simply too crazy and dangerous to bike in London.
I drive about six miles to work. Buses in the stix are only about every hour if that and stop about 7.30pm so I would never be able to do my evening shifts if I relied on public transport. I could cycle there as it is virtually downhill all the way but I’d never get back up the hill again and it’s a very dangerous road.
I spent all my school-life chasing after Routemasters and recklessly leaping on to the back of them as they moved off. I still occasionally have fraught dreams where I am running for the bus after all these years!
10 minutes on my bike, mostly through the polder :-) But when it rains, I take my car..
I take my bicycle and ride to the office, 4 days a week.
Since I have to take a left turn across some big and busy streets on the way in, it takes about 23 minutes to get there. On the way home, I can just take a right turn without the risk of being run over, so then it takes only 15 minutes.
On wednesdays, I take my bike again and cycle about 9 kilometers to Delft, where I take singing classes.
For me it’s eight minutes on foot to the bus stop, then about 20 minutes by bus to Utrecht Central Station and a final couple of minutes on foot.
Or sometimes, when the weather is very nice and I feel like it, I take the bike.