Day 1

So in that vein (see previous post), before I head to bed, I thought I'd write about my journey today - as a sample product, perhaps? :P

**In this blog, at least if I'm talking about the Central line, I'll probably make use of abbreviations for station names.  On the Central line, signals are identified with a three letter abbreviation (referring to the name of the relevant station) which is the scheme I will follow. The abbreviation is arrived at by taking the first three letters of the name, e.g. EPP for Epping. If the station name is two words long, the first two letters of the first word and the initial of the second are used, e.g. THB for Theydon Bois. If the station name is three words long, the initials are used, e.g. TCR for Tottenham Court Road (although I think Notting Hill Gate may be NOG). Leytonstone (LES) is the exception, as LEY is Leyton. Oxford Circus is usually abbreviated to OXO as well, although I don't know if this convention is used by the signals)**

Today was not a good day in the life of TUT. My alarm woke me on time, at 08:00, and with breathtaking speed and dexterity I instantly put it on snooze. No chance of getting up at 08:00 when I got up at 07:00 yesterday. For reasons best known to itself, the alarm went off again ten minutes later, apparently, my snoozing time was up. Now I hate to disagree with the alarm, it generally wins arguments as it can shout louder than I can, but I wanted some more sleep, so I got some more sleep. Quite a bit too much more sleep in fact. I had intended to be on the platform at Roding Valley (ROV) at about 09:10 (the Woodford (WOO) train is timetabled to leave at 09:14. This is actually a bit too late to reliably get me to class on time, but the previous train leaves at 08:54 and I am a lazy bastard.) Unfortunately, I woke up at about 09:10.

Nevertheless, I dressed at top speed, grabbed my things together, went without a shave and made the 09:35 train. Unfortunately, I had to be at King's Cross St. Pancras (King's X) by about 09:50 (09:55 max.) to get to class on time. That wasn't gonna happen. Happily, though, my beloved Central line was serving me well. The WOO train left ROV very promptly (we sometimes have a bit of wait for trains coming down from Buckhurst Hill (BUH), which cross over Woodford Junction just outside of ROV station (here the tube map is a pretty good representation, note how the two lines merge between ROV and WOO).

At WOO, the train goes into a siding after it terminates. I'm sure I'll write about WOO soon, but for now, I'll be brief. The train arrives (on Westbound platform 2) and everyone gets off. A member of staff on the station (and, usually, the T/Op (that's Train Operator (i.e. the driver))) will then check there's nobody left on the train (say, someone who's asleep, stubborn, or not paying attention) and manually close the doors of each carriage, carriage-by-carriage, using buttons placed at the end of each car. The train will then pull into the siding, off to the left, allowing Westbound trains to continue on to SOW (South Woodford). Here, the T/Op will walk to the other end of the train, set everything up and, when the time comes, pull out of the siding and into Eastbound platform 3, ready to go back to ROV, round to HAI (Hainault) and, most of the time, on into central London via NEP (Newbury Park) and LES (Leytonstone). This all went quite smoothly, I might have lost thirty seconds, max, because it was a little slower than usual, but hey, you expect a short delay while that all happens and in no time at all, I was pulling out of WOO on a West Ruislip (WER) train, I believe. Could have been EAB (Ealing Broadway).

I was making good time, until things went wrong as we were in BEG (Bethnal Green) westbound. We'd been there a while when the T/Op came over the PA and announced that we were being held at a red signal. This was an example of a "platforms and hold call". If a line has a problem, the control room will make a platforms and hold call, asking all trains to wait in a platform, if they're in one, or proceed to the next platform and wait there. This is so that if, say, there's a faulty train ahead, trains aren't queued up in tunnels behind it. Instead they wait in platforms, where passengers can get on and off, if necessary, and where it's usually a little bit cooler and more pleasant. Of course, at most times of the day, there's a chance that you're train could be stuck outside a platform, since there may be more than one train between two stations. So there will still be a little bit of queueing, but the idea is to prevent trains bunching up behind a stuck train, with lots of unhappy passengers stuck in tunnels. It also means that if the problem is looking serious, passengers can be informed and they can make the decision to find an alternative route. Trains can also be tipped out and moved into sidings or the depots, if necessary. This is the theory as I understand it, anyway, although I admit that the theory works a little less well if you happen to be one of the unfortunate people on a train which can't get to a platform. But I do understand that by holding trains in platforms, rather than letting them bunch up, it keeps them a good distance apart, so that - when the service resumes - you have a regular, normal flow of trains, rather than lots all in one go and then nothing for a while.

Anyway, the cause of this platforms and hold call was a faulty train at TCR (Tottenham Court Road). Result, thought I, if this delay lasts long enough, I'll have a bona fide excuse not to turn up to class. Alas, I was disappointed. I don't know what happened to the train at TCR, but it looks like the T/Op got it going again pretty quickly, because we were on the move after probably 4 or 5 minutes - if that. Sadly, 10:00 had been and gone before I'd even left BEG and I still had to get to King's X. I changed at LIS (Liverpool Street) and made my way up to the subsurface line platforms (that's the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines). Slightly frustratingly, I got stuck behind a man with a suitcase, who seemed to be able to fill the entire staircase. Now, I'm a big advocate of considerate commuting and I'm sure I'll produce a good rant or two on that, so I try not to get upset at people who obviously have to carry some luggage with them on their journeys - I've had to do it many times. But I do think that if you are carrying luggage, you probably should try to keep to one side of the stairs or the other. Anyway, I missed an S stock train, dunno where it was going.

Happily, it wasn't much of a problem, a minute or two later I was able to get a nice, new Circle line S7 train which was bound for Hammersmith and I didn't lose too much time. I noticed that the Met had minor delays due to faulty track at Neasden. That caused problems for most of the day - I imagine because the Metropolitan line's depot is there. Anyway, it didn't trouble me, as I say, although I did notice that the train behind mine was terminating at Harrow-on-the-Hill. This is not hugely unusual, in fact I believe a number of trains in the peak are timetabled to terminate there, but it's not a very very common destination.

Well, in the end, I was about 25 minutes late and, after my bollocking and a day of learning Hindi and a chat with a friend, I was ready to go home. Not too much to report, I got on at Euston Square (nice station, but a little grotty), caught a Hammersmith & City line S7 to Barking, got on a DEB (Debden) train at LIS and reached WOO in good time. I had a bit of a wait at WOO - the train to ROV was still in Westbound platform 2 when we pulled in. These trains are advertised as HAI services, but almost all of them continue to central London, the idea is, I'm told, not to advertise them as heading beyond HAI, because some people wanting to get to central London might get on them, not realising that it's a much longer journey, all the way around the loop. So, the idea is to encourage people to take the westbound trains via SNA (Snaresbrook). Anyway the HAI service deposited me safely at ROV in the end. I did notice, though, that there were no LOU (Loughton) trains advertised on the platform dot-matrix indicators, which tell you where the next train is going and how long it's going to be. But there were two DEB trains in close succession. DEB is not quite as well suited to reversing trains as LOU, and it's quite rare for trains to terminate there; trains usually reverse there in the peaks, but they're quite unusual at other times of day and I don't believe that any trains reverse there at weekends. LOU, on the other hand, is very common, with roughly 1 train in every 5 (or one every twenty minutes) on the EPP branch terminating there. I wondered if there was a problem or work going on there, but - apparently - in the new timetable this gap is meant to be there. In fact, they seem to have picked up the number of DEB reversers in the peaks. No idea why, but hey, I've learned something already :P

Happy tavelling :)