London Grinding To A Halt

Forgive the title of this post. There are times when only cliche will do.

Today I am going to a place just north of Farringdon. This journey would normally take - what - 35 minutes - if that. Today I'm allowing just over an hour. the TFL website journey finder reckons my best bet will include a walk, followed by a train, followed by a tube, followed by another walk, followed by a bus. Frankly I'm just going to take a chance that Cannon St will be open (TFL reckon it will be, but I'm always edgy until I get there) and walk the rest.

Weekend engineering works are such a sore point it feels tedious just to mention poor transport links - every blog I read moans about them on a weekly basis. But just because it's getting boring now doesn't mean to say that it's any less inconvenient, irritating or downright fury-inducing.

The weekday services have been utterly appalling - especially during the snow which created excuses a-gogo for Southeastern, and yet, strangely, didn't seem to affect anyone else nearly so badly - even those companies in the west of London that had it so bad TV reporters camped out to gloat managed to get on their feet more quickly that our lot.

But the weekend services have been on a trickle of misery for years now. The Jubilee line is worst of course, especially when it's closure has coincided with Southeastern closing the Charlton/Westcombe park/Maze Hill/ Greenwich line (and not mentioning on any kind of notice a the station that there's no point taking a bus to the Jubilee line 'cause that's shut too...)

And now it's all kicking off with the Northern Line. However much Boris may huff and puff, I'm guessing that it will make no difference. Tube Lines will continue to be inefficient because they know they can't get kicked off the job (I'm convinced they just factored the fines for late delivery into the initial cost).

It's enough to make you get back in the car.

But no - you can forget that too, if you're planning to be out any later than 9.00pm and - heavens - decide to cross the river.

For the next three years, don't even think about driving south through the Blackwall Tunnel between 9.00pm and 5.00am, Sundays to Fridays, AND Sunday, 1.00am-8.am - so that's your Saturday night on the tiles scuppered.

Why is there no contraflow created? All I can find are mutterings about Health and Safety. I don't buy them. As Lupo-Lupo points out, this won't just affect motorists either - I don't think I'd go as far as to say that Evelyn Road, Blackheath Hill and Greenwich town centre will be 'paralysed' every weekday night, but the traffic will be heavier and we will get jams. Not least because there's not been that much advance warning of this, and there will be a whole bunch of confused motorists getting as far as the A2 and being forced to turn back. No hope of extended Ferry crossing hours, of course.

It doesn't seem like any time at all since this all happened last time.

It all kicks off from tomorrow - so here's a fun thing to do tonight:

Get a load of mates together and drive back and forth through the tunnel all night - between one o'clock and eight - just because you can, luxuriating in the delight of two tunnels at night.

Transport Ups and Downs

So - from today we can use our Pay As You Go Oysters on the clippers, which gets us a 10% discount on the fare. I'm really pleased about this - it joins up the transport system much better even if it doesn't follow through that the Clipper counts on the daily travelcard-capped fare which would have been the ideal outcome (of course...) You can find more details here.

Even more useful for those of us who use the Southeastern trains, we'll soon be able to use our PAYG Oysters on the main lines too - the machines which were shipped in several months ago will, apparently, be turned on on the 2nd Jan 2010. I guess it remains to be seen whether we still get to have actual human beings in the stations after the demand for paper tickets drops...

Where I'm also less clear is what the hell's happening with Southeastern's new timetable. We've been warned that we'd get no through trains to Charing Cross in the new edition but from my (albeit brief - I hate reading timetables online - must get a proper paper one from the station - if there's a human there, of course...) perusal of the new version, there do still seem to be the odd one or two through trains. I know nothing about what's going on there.

I'm going to test out my Oyster on the Clipper ASAP. I'll report back.

Thames Oysters

Scared of Chives has just sent me this link to an announcement by the mayor that as from November we'll be able to use Oyster cards on the Thames Clippers, which is obviously good news, especially since if we do, we get a reduction on the price.

He's also introducing a new service - sadly for us, only between London Bridge and Canary Wharf - a shame - it would have been nice to go to Greenwich. But with rail and road getting so full, maybe he'll look at putting in more boats that go further - perhaps to Woolwich or even Thamesmead - in future. For the moment, though, a small victory for the commuter...

Now let's see Pay As You Go Oysters useable on the trains...

Railroaded

Sorry folks - but I just have to have a grumble along with everyone else today.

This morning I looked to see what the damage would be on a Travelcard this year. Off-peak, from Zones 1-4 (yes, I know we're in Zone 3, but there isn't a sodding travelcard for sodding Zone 1-to-sodding-3) it's gone from £5.80 to £6.30. I make that 50p extra a pop. It's now a tenner if you want to travel before 9.30am.

To add insult to injury, if we were actually allowed to use an Oystercard, which they keep on telling us to do, but we can't because it's Southeastern and they, like the other rail companies won't play ball with the rest of TFL, it would be capped to the old price.

So okay. We pay more.

But just get this. Bob has just told me that from December next year, there will be zero - coun't 'em - ZERO - off-peak trains from Greenwich to Charing Cross. You don't believe him? Here's the proof.

Now - I have to give them something - there WILL be more trains for commuters - which, naturally, is good news for anyone who has to stand all the way every day. But cutting an entire service to Charing Cross - so that everyone has to go via Cannon Street, is frankly rubbish. I'm used to trekking across the platforms at London Bridge during the day, but coming home from Charing Cross late at night was really good - and always busy. It's not as though it's not being used.

BTW, both Cannon Street and London Bridge will be building sites this year.

Still, at least Cannon Street tube is open on Saturdays now, from 07:20 to 19:40. It's still completely closed on Sundays. So - no late nights, eh, guys?