Underground Incovenience

The residents of SW19 and I imagine other parts of London are now subject to a new scourge, one which has seemingly crept up on us all from the dark corridors of the transport trade unions. In today’s Daily Mail, the legendary writer and columnist, A N Wilson, eloquently wrote of over-zealous parking wardens who were terrorising the small town of Warley by lying in wait for unsuspecting motorists and slapping down the fines onto the windscreen as soon as they saw a potential infringement. In turn, I wish to draw Londoners attention to the new breed of nanny-statism that seems to now have a hold on our public transport system.

It all started a month ago when I spied the below notice in the lobby of Wimbledon station:

The sheer distaste I felt for such a notice, which smacked of unnecessary state interference, led me to tweet the notice on Twitter and receive a few amused and some sarcastic remarks regarding the poster’s content. But I knew that this was the rocky road to something even more irritating and inconvenient to the hapless commuter who just wants to get to work by their regular route, earn their salaries and pay their taxes which ironically keeps the trains running daily!

What really gets my goat about this whole situation is that it seems the London transport system has such a contempt for the general public, from unfriendly, unhelpful service to their arrogance when it comes to doing their job – as if no one else matters beyond the meeting of their duty.

Of course, this doesn’t give anyone the right to be abusive to staff on the system as I see so many frustrated or – frankly – rude people doing whatever they please whether it be early in the morning or late at night (especially on weekends), but sometimes I can see how this situation can come about and how the staff can brilliantly exacerbate someone drunk or in a hurry through their sheer obstinacy and bloody-mindedness.

When you think how much fares have risen over the last 10 years with no discernible improvement in functionality and service. I live on the District Line, punctuated by surly staff and constantly poor service. When you think that ten pounds guarantees you 3.5 journeys it makes you question where your money goes, and slightly irate when you find it has been channeled to employing a bunch of jobsworths to satisfy the unions thirst for more money and mass employment (a pipe-dream you may think, not on the underground it’s not, where you could be mistaken for thinking you are in the Soviet Union of the 1970s!)

What horrified me the other day was when I forgot to tap in on my oyster card and was charged a whopping £8.20 for a mistake! Like many others who have fallen foul of this, I was livid, both with myself for making such a mistake and also the extortionate penalty levied at my expense.

Something has to give soon. I cannot believe that I am the only Londoner who feels more than disgruntled with our system. As such I will be welcoming any comments or stories you might have of public transport woes in the capital, but to be fair, if you do work on public transport and want to leap to their defence (unless your name happens to be Bob Crow) please do and prove me wrong. I am happy to engage in civilized debate, just no abuse please, life’s too short!

Henry