Earlswood Station Rain storm...

...it's just absolutely horrible at the moment (last couple of communting days exactly the same)...today the early train was completely cancelled thanks to flooding at Christ's hospital...this can't have been a surprise can it?  Could they not have started it from Horsham on this occasion?  What about tomorrow?

London Bridge Sleepers

Spotted these the other day, while I was sat on a train awaiting a platform at London Bridge (you may want to zoom in by clicking to get a better look)...I don't know about you, but to me, those sleepers look just a little bit worse for wear...in fact, I would go so far as to say that they wouldn't look out of place sticking out of the sea as the weather beaten remains of a ruined pier (certainly when compared to the nice new ones next to them)...!

I'm sure they are perfectly safe though... 

Okay, perhaps...

Okay, perhaps...
Originally uploaded by finkangel.
...I set off a *little* on the early side! Oh well...

A Little Adventure...

So on Sunday, Thomas and I got kicked out of the house by Flyingpops (for simplicity reasons due to extensive cleaning requirements) and decided to pop over to Horsham to see Nanny and Granddad (And "Cat!", And "Dog!", as Thomas pointed out)...

In what should have been a relatively simple exercise - we set off for our exciting adventure, well - just as soon as we had finished watching the F1, anyway - (Thomas practically running out to the pram, ten minutes too early, when he was offered the prospect of seeing a train - reacting like we had just had to explain to him that Santa Claus didn't really exist and he was going to have to sleep in the shed from now on when we asked him to come back inside for just "one minute", requiring we both wrestle him back into the house, fending off flying limbs and Toddler language that would have been unprintable, even had it been comprehensible)...

It all went a bit downhill from there...

First, we discovered that the next available train to Horsham from the train station that we could easily walk to (naturally) was at 6am the following day, so we shrugged and pushed our way to the hospital to try and catch a bus (which was 22 minutes late, and almost completely full by the time it finally wobbled around the roundabout)...then we learned that the fare had gone up by 10 pence so we didn't have the correct change (which was greeted with very little enthusiasm by the designated driver), despite this, Thomas clutched my ticket (apparently for dear life) as I desperately tried to stop his pram falling over while we screeched around the corners nervously singing "The Wheels on the Bus", during which Thomas continuously frowned with ill concealed concern at the peculiar and precarious position in which I had apparently decided to place him (which admittedly bore very little resemblance to the words coming out of my mouth)...

More by luck than anything else, we arrived, slightly ruffled, in Redhill and spent 10 minutes standing behind an elderly gentleman who clearly didn't know how to use the ticket machine (but was trying very hard anyway) he finally gave up, after several rejected offers of help, and walked straight through the open barriers without one (which he could have just done in the first place) we followed suit (with our long-awaited ticket) and then realised that it was going to be impossible to get up to the correct platform from that direction due to the enormous quantity of stairs...so we went back the way we came, crossed back across the road and puffed half way up Redstone Hill to the other entrance, banging noisily on the locked gate to Platform three for five minutes until a sleepy guard appeared to let us in...

We spent a very happy twenty minutes waiting for our first (and as it happened, only) train, Thomas pointing and shrieking as all the trains we didn't want zoomed merrily past, saying "Train, Useful!" - which, in my experience (at least) they often aren't, however Rev. W. Awdry (and his son, Christopher) appear to have already successfully convinced Thomas otherwise...I'll leave Southern Trains to complete his education on the matter when he is older...

At Gatwick Airport the train absolutely filled up with French people, who all appeared to need the toilet (which we, of course, were blocking with the pushchair), but at least that stopped me managing to change Thomas' nappy in the tiny cubical (I was terribly sad not to be able to avail myself of that opportunity, as you can imagine) and then we disembarked at Three Bridges, only requiring the assistance of three foreigners not to tip Thomas down between the train and the platform, as we hopped lightly out...after we had both calmed down (with the help of a box of sultanas), Thomas politely exclaimed "Bye bye train, bye bye peoples", and gave them all a little wave...

Finding, to my very great relief, after peering down a very long flight of rather dark stairs, that Three Bridges many platforms are accessible via elevator (thanks to a kindly guard), we then discovered (to some, not inconsiderable, dismay) that the reason 40 men in high visibility jackets were standing around supervising one person with a laser spirit level (up above us), was that our onward journey to Horsham was not to be by another train, but by a replacement bus service...to this piece of news, Thomas promptly fell fast asleep, my phone battery died and I spent the rest of the 40 minute journey wishing I had brought any book with me other than "My First Animal Words" (which Thomas hadn't even glanced at)...

It probably would have been easier to QWOP into Mordor (I'll let you Google it)...Lunch was delicious though... ;)

Long queue at Earlswood Station

So I get to the station this morning, thirteen minutes to go, to be honest a bit later than I would have liked thanks to both of us being in a bit of a flap (a busy day to come for reasons too numerous to go into) and Thomas (little blighter!) not wanting to wake up this morning, even though whenever we have plenty of time (Saturday and Sunday for example) he seems to be ready to be up and bouncing at about half past five...I turn and jog down the hill from where Flyingpops and Thomas have waved me off and (sh1tsh1tsh1tsh1t) find myself at the end of a queue of ten people waiting for tickets *face+palm*...

I check the time - eleven minutes to go - the odds are not good, but it's not impossible...the queue, keeping me hopeful, moved fairly quickly - five minutes to go and only three people ahead - three minutes to go, two people...I shuffle uncomfortably, clutching ticket and bank card in hand...

Then *finally* the very last (very old) guy in front of me steps up to the window and (to my horror) in a thick Eastern European accent begins a very long, and almost impossible to understand sentence about something that happened in 1988 (Why??? Why me!) - the train is announced on the tannoy system, I glace at my 'phone - less than one minute remaining...!

The ticket lady answers the conclusion to the old gentleman's question with "Sorry love?" (rather than something useful like "that'll be eleven fifty please") and it is at this precise moment, as the train pulls up on the platform (and I almost explode with frustration) that I remember I had last Monday off as holiday, flick open my ticket (like Kirk from Star Trek opening his communicator) and realise it's still valid today!

Where I was previously standing, a swirling dust cloud and the sound of a banging ticket office door are all that remains...

*Phew*!

Funny Announcement - London Commute

Hehe, this made me laugh the other day, had just got on an East Croydon train from London Bridge and as it was pulling away so the guard came on over the public address system (as they do)...Not quite sure exactly what it was that told me, but I think this chap might have been a *bit* new to the job though -

He cleared his throat and began - "Read this as you depart after welcoming the customers on board. This train is fast to East Croydon then calls at..." (and here he listed a long number of destination stations) "then make sure you tell the passengers to take all their belongings with them when they leave the train and make sure they keep them with them at all times while on the platforms and trains during their onward journey, then say thank you"...

Yeah...not sure that was actually meant to be read out verbatim... ;)

Hello Sunshine!

Ah...can't tell you how good it is to be leaving the house in daylight again...and for bonus points, not in the snow or rain! In fact, it's been so nice my mind has been turning to thoughts of al fresco dining on charcoal cooked meats...just a shame it's absolutely freezing cold with it, or I'd be out poking the BBQ with a stick to scare off the spiders and pulling on my apron... ;)

Only bad thing is, BST starts at the end of the month, and then we'll be back to square one (in the morning, anyway)!

Earlswood Station National Customer Service Week

Spotted this sign at Earlswood station this morning (sorry for the terrible photo, only had my mobile with me and it isn't wonderful in low light) - anyway, apparently it's "National Customer Service Week" this week (Hurrah...!) and to help celebrate customer service (in all it's various forms), our local railway station has decided to do a (wait for it!) "guess the number of sweets in the jar" competition...! It nearly made me choke on my yoghurt drink as I muffled my guffaw, but sadly it's actually more brilliant than the *terrible* suggestions for things to do that I found on the ICS website, for example - Why not answer the phone with a cheery "Thank you for calling during customer service week!" - or - Why not bring in a photo or cuddly toy that makes you smile to put on your desk? - or - have a poetry day! - (would have loved to see them try to organise that with the grumpy commuters) or the simply brilliant - Form an Action Group/Committee! I'm sure the single employee of Earlswood station was thrilled when she was asked to form a committee (on her own) to come up with an idea...

I'm just left at a complete loss to understand what *any* of this does to improve customer service?

Baby on Board

I was sat, minding my own business (watching House MD on my PSP) on the train on the way home last night, when a strange thing happened...a couple got on the train at London Bridge, waving goodbye to an elderly pair (grandparents, I assumed), dragging kids behind them...they collapsed into seats and started talking (moaning about their bad timing using the underground at rush hour)...mum was hugging a tiny baby sat on the seat directly in front of me and after no more than five minutes a pair of tiny hands appeared on the top of the seat, searching for purchase, and when found, pulled a little head into view, poking over the top of the seat back, staring straight at me with an odd mixture of awe, puzzlement and terror - I smiled as reassuringly as I could and did a little wave and the head vanished a second or two later as grip failed during a carriage wobble...then the hands reappeared, followed by the head and the same look...I smiled and waved again, and this time baby was repositioned by mum...only for the little head to pop out again, this time around the side of the seat into the aisle...this went on and on for about ten minutes until I heard mum say "What are you looking at?", and she peered around the seat, just in time to catch me sticking my tongue out (anticipating the usual head to appear, causing me a little embarrassment)...it did work quite well as an ice breaker though - we got chatting, I told her Flyingpops and I were expecting and we laughed about the unusual behaviour, but we were both at a loss as to what was quite so interesting about me...I bid them farewell at Redhill (they were heading on to Gatwick) and as I walked up the platform, the little baby *still* had it's eyes fixed on me as the train swept past, and off into the distance...

Views of the London Underground

England Blizzard - Failed Commute

Well, we thought we would give it a *try*, despite getting up and seeing that there had been even more snow overnight -

- we swept Poppy the Beetle off with a broom, followed by the scrapers, as much of it had indeed turned to ice -

- and then made our way *extremely* carefully (no gritting *again*) to the main road, where we found evidence of what the kids had been up to yesterday-


- got caught in the enormous traffic jam up the hill, absolutely crept up, almost stationary the whole way -

- finally reaching the sign for the station -

- (it started to snow again on the way, well not so much snow as pelt down with ice pellets), spotting casualties, not sure if they were abandoned or just crashed, but this one was in the middle of what normally qualifies as pavement(and there must have been more ahead, judging by the speed of the traffic) -

- crept along the un-gritted roads and pulled into a parking space at the station (there are normally zero) -


- and slid our way down to the door, which looked like this -

- not a good sign -

- so we snuck in the back way, and the platform looked like it had been abandoned for some time - the sign sort of said it all -

- not a long wait, just nothing...THIS STATION IS CLOSED - the radio had hinted it was the case, and all the websites one normally uses to check these things were down (again), but this just confirmed it...it wasn't going to happen today either...guess we are just too rural to be a priority...

Still, the ice has largely melted in the garden now, so hopefully the railway get it together for tomorrow morning...fingers crossed!

New Timetable - New Earlswood woes

So yesterday the new Winter timetable came into force, Flyingpops was over the moon as our normal train has now turned into a "fast" train (i.e. it doesn't bother stopping at Merstham/Purley/Coulsdon) getting in 10 minutes earlier, however, I am a bit miffed...first off it's now only 4 coaches (which isn't nearly enough, it came in to Earlswood today "full and standing" and 99% of the time we used to get not only a seat, but also seats together, from the looks of things this is now going to be rather unlikely moving forward), secondly it then wastes much of the advantage of not being a stopping service by adding in a coupling up maneuver at Redhill which also doubles the potential for delays (if one or other bit of the train is running late)...thirdly, and this isn't really a big deal, but I have a slightly more "schmoke and a pancake?" attitude to the commute than Flyingpops, preferring to relax and watch movies/TV or play games, using it as quality recreation time (rather than plugging away on a Blackberry)...now it's about 10 minutes shorter (although don't get me wrong, I like getting into town earlier as the tube is less likely to have got itself into a pickle)...it's just that a whole TV episode used to fit into the commute, and now it doesn't...

Humph...

Earlswood Station - Power Cut

The last few days have been a bit of a pain for us (nothing like the track works though, this is just a very minor inconvenience)...because of the arrival of Poppy the Beetle Flyingpops has taken to parking on the far side of the station, necessitating a daily wade through the puddles in the spooky underpass that allow the wealthy residents of Royal Earlswood park to access the (comparitively) "chavy" side of the tracks (where the station entrance is located), however, probably because of the frequent flooding, it was deemed necessary for there to be some resurfacing works which closed off the underpass completely (and blocked off 3 of the parking spaces at the station) where it appeared several workmen slept the night in their van between/during working sessions...as a result the usually easy job of finding somewhere to safely leave Poppy for the day has been a little more challenging...

Now this all should have been over by today, so we zoomed over the rail bridge to park in the nice car park as usual, only to find that (although the resurfacing work has apparently been completed - perhaps too well - worryingly all the drainage channels appear to have been completely filled with tarmac too) somewhere along the line someone has managed to cut the power...so the tunnel was pitch black (luckily I had a mini LED torch)...but the platform and the ticket office were dark too, and the PA system was down, even the displays showing when the next train is due (and how it's getting on with staying on time)...so we had a bit of a tense wait this morning, with no idea if the trains were delayed or cancelled (as they frequently seem to be)...heaven only knows what anyone that needed a ticket had to do, just get on anyway and try and blag it I guess...!

There and Back again - Earlswood to Canary Wharf

So last night wasn't too bad, with a bit of digging around I discovered that they have put on an extra (what they call) "semi fast" train (i.e. not "fast" meaning direct, but not a "stopping service" either) at just past six from London Victoria...

I zoomed from the office on the dot of close of business and legged it down to the Jubilee line (platform couldn't have been much busier, but when the train came we all managed to pile on somehow), changed at Westminster for the Circle and District line and arrived with about 5 minutes to spare - looking at the ravening hoard on the main concourse I decided to take a gamble and went for the mini display near the platforms where Redhill trains normally depart, as it's that much closer (so more chance of a seat)...as I waited, so a couple of business men were taking bets on whether it would leave from 18 or 19 ("It's got to be platform 19") and of course (as always happens at Victoria, and I had honestly forgotten) everyone broke into a run towards Platform 15 when it popped up, causing our friend who was poised to run through the crowd to the right to be left standing...I got my seat (phew) just starting to get comfortable when an announcement blared out "Apologies Ladies and Gentlemen, but there has been a mistake" (Oh No!) "this service will now not be calling at Purley"...queue a load of gasps and swear words and about a third of the people on my carriage got off again, making space for the desperate folks running up the train looking for space to clamber aboard...

Anyway, got to Redhill and they have actually got things rather well arranged there - from the plentiful "Here to help" staff in HVJs to the proliferation of very clear signs to the replacement buses -

- which didn't stop zooming past as I was waiting for Flyingpops to buy her ticket to Birmingham for her meeting today...

This morning we awoke to find that snow/hail had fallen overnight (the first time this has happened in October, in the London area since 1934), so it was a bit of a mad dash to get the car scraped and defrosted, then of course the *only* train I can get into London from Earlswood in the morning had a technical fault (probably the same one the car had) and was about ten minutes late (and totally packed when it arrived - managed to score a seat at East Croydon though), got into Victoria at about 0825 (pretty good!) - District and Circle was fine (took the secret entrance at Victoria to miss the crowds - shhh!) and then had to wait for about 12 minutes at Westminster for a Jubilee line train...

I *just* made my desk before 9am...

Certainly not loving it, but thus far I have *just* managed to keep to semi-normal commuting times (thanks only to these sparce semi-fast trains though)...anyway, only 5 more journeys to go before things should return to normal (wish me luck)...

Engineering works and disruption - Redhill to Coulsdon South

All the fun of the "fare" today...there are *week* long engineering works on the line that goes from Redhill to Coulsdon South meaning *all* trains from our area to London Bridge have been completely cancelled...two alternatives are left, (neither of them are particularly attractive) -

1 - Bus to Redhill, wait for a replacement bus service to Purley (and there are terrible road works along there that we discovered on Timmy's stag do), wait at Purley for a train to East Croydon, then wait at East Croydon for a service to London Bridge - estimated journey time - how long is a piece of string...?
2 - Drive to Earlswood as usual (wade through the crowds of people who have come from Redhill that aren't usually Earlswood passengers), wait on the wrong platform (no sign to tell us, thanks) for a train to Victoria (which is the wrong side of London completely for the Docklands), forget trying to find a seat and just look for any tiny space to crush into), this train then has to go the wrong way down the track, wait until nothing is coming (took about ten minutes this morning) and then sneak onto the Gatwick Express line (which is not part of the engineering works), get off at Victoria (where 3 of the entrances to the tube were closed today thanks to overcrowding by all the extra people trying to use it), get the District line to Westminster and then change onto the Jubilee line to complete my journey...

We did option two...and somehow, this total hash of a journey managed to get me into work about fifteen minutes earlier than usual...go figure...!

On the way home it's *five* separate stages on the railway alone (including the replacement bus through the road works), and the two tube journeys unless I can get on the train out of Victoria that leaves at 1710...somehow I get the feeling that this isn't going to be a very enjoyable week...

Free Thameslink season ticket holder

In a happy piece of good timing, yesterday I was the lucky recipient of a brand new (if a little garish) season ticket holder, courtesy of Thameslink, which is nice, because my last free season ticket holder (from the FT, in the ultimate goodie bag) was starting to get a bit tatty...this was also a little odd, as when First decided to buy Thameslink they spent a huge amount of time and money (and actually it wasn't even that long ago) changing the name and the livery of the service from Thameslink to "First Capital Connect"...so a rainbow coloured branding reversal seems to be taking place (Thameslink was a much better name anyway IMHO)...

So what was this actually all about? Opening up the tiny folded sheet tucked inside revealed something that put a bit of a (cruel) smile on my face - a happy-clappy season ticket holder in exchange for massive disruption to services until around 2015 due to underground works, crossrail works, platform works, track works, new trains (with aircon - gasp! Only had them for 10 years on the other lines!) etc. etc. etc. (absolutely none of which is going to change the fact that it's a one up, one down single line for much of their track, any problem along that bit of the line and the entire service grinds to a halt)...so actually it's just another load of reasons to give thanks and praise every day for not having to even touch that service with a barge pole...

Caution - Random Jack in the box cleaning system

Spotted in the toilet on the 1952hrs train out of London Bridge, looks like several vandals have made attempts to peel it off and then suddenly realised what it was and tried to stick it back on again...the sign reads "Caution. This toilet is fitted with a random jack-in-the-box cleaning system.", it's installed on an enormous steel trap door in the wall directly in front of the toilet (meaning if it were true you would have a good chance of losing your head should it decide to "go off")...

Very funny... ;)

Naughty Fink

Naughty Fink
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog.

Honestly, that wasn't me (spotted on Kipperfrog's photostream)..!

Earlswood to London Bridge (Worst case scenario)

So we get to Earlswood (where there are about 3 times more commuters in the ticket office than normal (uh oh)) to see that the next train on the board is the 0713 (delayed by about 40 minutes...groan, remember this is barely two weeks after the last "Commuter Hell"...) due to "adverse track conditions" (it was rather foggy and icy), we watch an extremely delayed Victoria train go past (with hundreds of empty seats) and wait for our normal London Bridge train (which is only delayed by 8 minutes by some miracle) but when it pulls in, despite a mad dash down a few carriages, no seats...it's already full and standing...so Flyingpops walks down inbetween the seats (in the hope someone will get off) and I perch by the door (where I can just about sit/lean on the hand rail, like sort of half a seat), we proceed up the line filling up to *absolutely rammed* by Merstham (where I am cursing myself for not getting my book out of my rucksack, no way to reach it now)...somewhere around Coulsdon I make the terrible mistake of reaching above my head with both hands to stretch a bit and hang on to the rail on the ceiling, and the void left where my arms had been instantly and immovably vanishes, filled by other commuters bags and bodies, leaving me completely stuck and unable to put my arms back down again...the train comes to a halt outside East Croydon (and then just sits there for about 25 minutes with no explanation) leaving me desperately uncomfortably, when we finally pull in (after an announcement that there is some "congestion" in the area...really??) a few people get off and then even *more* cram on (but at least I use the brief respite to firmly lodge my hands by my sides, won't be doing that again!)...anyway, we sit at the platform with the doors opening and closing for (I suppose) another ten minutes until an ominous announcement "Would the guard please contact the driver please", followed shortly after by the guard - "My apologies ladies and gentleman, but due to a broken down train in the Norwood Junction area" (why is it *always* Norwood Junction?) "this train will now be diverted to London Victoria via Clapham Junction"...EH??? This is doubly irritating as we deliberately didn't board the empty Victoria train at Earlswood...grrr...



Thousands of moans, groans and "tuts" later virtually everyone (standing) on the train gets off to try and find an alternative, I manage to re-join Flyingpops who is hastily examining her tube map, and a few minutes later we are off again (slowly), finally pulling into London Victoria at about quarter past nine...crushed Circle line and Jubilee line later (cursing the six minute wait at Westminster having *just* missed an almost empty train) I cram onto another packed carriage to complete my nightmare journey to Canary Wharf, manage (somehow) to come out the wrong exit from the tube and find myself on the wrong side of the park near Waitrose, finally slumping down at my desk exactly one hour after I normally arrive for work...

Wonderful...

Terror Threat Critical

Blimey, what a weekend, so it *was* two bombs in London on Friday (just blind luck neither of them hit their targets), and then this idiotic display of ineptitude in Glasgow on Saturday afternoon, brings us to the highest level of terror alert -

- which is "Critical", meaning "an attack is expected imminently", as a result, rather a lot of coppers visible on my commute this morning (I still wonder where they all are normally, they can't all be doing paperwork, surely?) -

Anyway, I decided to get the Thameslink (keep things simple, and stay away from buses and tube), at Redhill there were five officers visible, three on platform three (who were constantly walking up and down, checking in corners, asking people about their luggage and generally being very vigilant) and two on platform one/two who were standing and laughing and chatting, one of them even making a "woo scary" face at one stage, to much mirth from the other (so you know which platform the senior officer was on) -

I've also heard tell that armed officers were spotted at Blackfriars (but I was playing on my PSP for the rest of the journey and not really looking out the window, so cannot confirm)...Funnily enough I didn't see any officers at all in the Kings Cross area, which is most unusual, normally it's crawling with police in the wake of a terror alert, but perhaps they are all concentrated in the city this time, dunno...Oh, I also read this morning that *two* of the suspects that are in for questioning are practicing doctors, whatever happened to the Hippocratic oath, eh?

In other news, England joins the rest of the sensible world by introducing a smoking ban in all indoor public spaces, I guess this would otherwise have been the main story of the day...I'm still not quite clear about what happens on railway stations, they seem to be saying that smoking is illegal on all their property, but the end of most railway platforms can hardly be described as an "indoor public space", can it? Wonder how that one will play out...

Also, ebay tip, probably worth buying up (cheap) a bunch of nice pub ashtrays, as they are destined to now be consigned to the history books...I'm quite excited, it's wonderful to sit in a bar in New York, completely smoke free (not that it bothers me massively), it's just nice to think that this is the last time I'm ever going to wake up and wrinkle my nose at the reek of tobacco when I pick up my jacket after a night on the piss... ;)