// November 10th, 2009 // NaBloPoMo
Daily Confession: I read TNT Magazine although I’m not from Australia, New Zealand or South Africa.
Aside from all the references to celebrities that I don’t get, it’s one of the better free reads that you can pick up outside Tube stations. There’s things like Photoshopped images of the Queen and interviews with famous people – most of whom I know, yay! – but what makes me laugh the most is the reader perspectives on London.
Having lived here for at least 10 years, I feel I can be self-righteous and call them n00bs. ^_^ With the latest issue I picked up outside a Tube station, a reader of the magazine was complaining about having to wait *gasp* between six and thirteen minutes extra for a London Overground train!
Now, London trains work in pretty obvious ways: those that go underground, and those that do not.
London Underground (Tube) trains usually come every 5 minutes or so in central London, but as you go out from the centre, trains become less and less frequent. On a normal weekday, because I’m near the end of the line, I can wait up to half an hour for a train to take me on a 10 minute journey eastbound during the so-called peak times.
London Overground trains, on average, come about every 15-20 minutes during peak times, less so during off-peak times. There can be major delays, but usually nothing that can’t be solved within 20 minutes, and most commuters are happy to wait.* Although this may be because they have no other choice.
This letter to the magazine was hilarious to read. Not only because he seemed so put out that he had to wait a bit extra, but that he ended the letter with “This is London, not Sydney!”
London and Sydney have at least one thing in common: they’re cities. And what do cities have? Imperfect transport systems!
If the guy who wrote an indignant letter into the magazine was so annoyed with being a whole THIRTEEN MINUTES later than usual for work, he should get up earlier.
…And try waiting for buses more/come to South Harrow or Boston Manor station with me. That should put his lateness into perspective.
*There was a time last year where an unusual 50 minute delay on a London Overground train made me totally miss French and Saunders live, and I was upset for days, but amazingly kind people on Plurk gave me another ticket for their last ever show, but that’s a long story for another day…
I would give a very useful limb to have a transport system that was even that reliable. Los Angeles transit sucks. I have nasty thoughts about what someone should do to Anal Complainerson, but I’ll be nice and refrain.
People get funny about their transit. I lived for a decade or so in the Bay Area, Ca. There we have perhaps the least perfect transit system- MUNI, BART and AC Transit. Somehow I get all fuzzy just thinking about it! Stockholm syndrome, no doubt.
Venice has very reliable transport – I’ve never seen anything be more than thirty seconds late. This is probably a side effect of no traffic, no rails, etc.
Of course, it’s full of tourists, so nobody in their right mind ever actually uses the very reliable transport.
I guess the advantage of being a small town girl is not having to complain about transit at all.
That being said, I would love to spend a year in London, absorbing the culture and history. I’d put up with whatever transit I was given, promise.
Moscow has the best tube network. Trains every thirty seconds. Cheap, by any standards you care to name. Never ever late and never ever breaks down. A thirteen minute delay would make the national news, I kid you not.
And don’t get me started on the inability of British people to make way for each other in rush hours.
In fact, the London train network made me so cross when I came back that I boycotted it and took the bus. I’m still doing pretty well on that five years on.
Oh, the letter I could write… I can rant for hours on this topic. I think I’ll just go and have a quiet lie down before I do…
Twitter: Rammi
says:
We think differently when it comes to buses. I hate my local bus routes, and would boycott them if I could. Alas, I need them to connect me to the trains.
I long for the day when I can move within a walking distance of a Tube station.