Oyster

I didn't post yesterday because there was a strike and so there was a picket line. I wouldn't cross a picket line anyway, but I certainly wasn't gonna pass up an excuse to have a day off. Unfortunately, I wasted it a bit because we had a builder doing work and I doubted I would be able to concentrate on anything very productive - so I mucked around with unproductive things instead (even long after he'd left :P)

 

Still, today I was up early again, but (again) just not early enough. I knew I wouldn't make the 08:54, so I threw the towel in pretty early on in the morning and aimed for the 09:14. This meant that I was actually running a little bit "early" (according to my revised timetable anyway :P) but I still managed to forget to grab a bottle of water. Still, I did make it to ROV with just a short wait for the WOO.

 

The Oyster reader was playing up though. It made the noise of a failed touch-in (two beeps), but I saw on the screen "Enter. £9.10." (There are no barriers at ROV, only little readers, so it's not immediately obvious whether it's worked or not.) I wasn't really sure what to do (makes you long for a ticket office don't it? :P) I knew that if you record a 'same station exit' and touch in and then touch out at the same station within 0-2 minutes, you get charged (£8.10 apparently). What I didn't realise was that you can then re-touch-in within 45 minutes and it resets itself and you get a refund. Still, because the mechanisms of Oyster are entirely opaque - even, apparently, to those who were involved in its implementation - I was ill-inclined to risk it. It once cost me 2 quid just to go for a walk around King's Cross St. Pancras when I got a bit lost looking for the Northern line (I used the wrong entrance (the one on Pentonville Road)). Happily, however, I had touched in successfully this morning and the gates opened for me at King's Cross. Still, not really what I was hoping for.

 

I changed at WOO, where I bought myself a drink, for the WER. After the doors closed at WOO it was some time - a good 10 or 15 seconds, if not more - before we had any movement. I wonder why. Apart from that, though, it was all really rather smooth into LIS, where I just missed an H&C line train to Hammersmith, but was soon able to board a Wembley Park. We passed a Met line train in Moorgate's platform 3 on the way in to King's X. It had only just arrived and was still showing 'Moorgate' as its destination, so I don't know where it was going.

 

On the way back, I had a 2 minute wait for an Aldgate train that took me to LIS, past another train (Hammersmith bound - I think it was a Circle line train?) in Moorgate's platform 3. When I arrived on the Central line eastbound platform at LIS, there was a train standing in the platform. I made my way onto that - while one or two of my fellow journeyers pushed and hurried and generally behaved like children - with time to spare. Again, the doors closed and there was a little bit of a wait until we got on our way. It was an EPP service, so I took it as far as WOO. On the way, our T/Op - who was very talkative - was having fun with the DVA (Digital Voice Announcer (I think)) and we got a couple of messages, one of which was:

 

"Customers are reminded that smoking is not permitted anywhere on London Underground."

 

Very useful.

 

Only a minute to wait for the HAI and it was a very nice day, so there were plenty of good views to enjoy between SOW and ROV to boot :). I happened to notice Sonia was very quiet in my carriage of the HAI train. She was just about working, though, I think.