God Bless the Tube

“Please be advised that the Victoria Line is suspended between Warren Street and Brixton due to a possible fire at Green Park Station”.

That is JUST what I want to hear right before trying to get on a Victoria Line train. No worries, I live at Kings Cross. 6 tube lines run through this station. I’ll just get onto the Piccadilly Line or the Northern Line. So I walk around the corner towards the tunnel to those two lines.

“Attention, please be advised that due to the suspension on the Victoria Line, the Piccadilly Line and Northern Line are experiencing severe volume, passengers are encouraged to take an alternative route”.

Awesome. Just as the announcement finishes I arrive at the entrance tunnel to find them pulling the gate down and closing it! Severe volume indeed! I actually laughed a bit. This would never happen in Toronto. I also cursed that I didn’t have my camera. The tube workers (or maybe they’re police officers?) wear really bright neon yellow vests. In a dingy tube tunnel this amuses me. I also realized today at work that I really should have a camera at all times. We have some crazy art in the office, and since it’s an old building with lots of little corridors I discover something new everyday (yesterday I learned we actually have an original Andy Warhol painting in one of the meeting rooms!).

But I digress. The point of this post is that I had to take the dreaded Circle Line to work and ride half that circle of central London too! It took me about 50 minutes to get to work. Now seems like a good time to mention that Jason’s train commute to Cambridge is only 45 minutes

I did a quick Google News scan to see if I could find a picture to add to this post. Sure enough there is none. Because a delay like this isn’t news. It’s just an average day on the tube.