ANTIDOTE TO OLYMPICS BOASTING ABOUT BRIT PUBLIC TRANSPORT

A welcome guest post by Andrew Muir, describing his Saturday:

Notes sent from my mobile on the way to and from London [from Cambridge: a distance of 64 miles]:

On the way:

I left early: just as well as the queue for the train tickets is way outside the station at Cambridge and well into the road outside.

I am in one queue which later splits into machine and ticket office queues.

There's police around as it looks like getting out of hand. 

Sigh. Why is it always like this around me?

Blazing hot in the sun, queue hardly moved in 20 minutes.

Inside the station now, even hotter, packed like sardines.  Hard to see which queue is which. It is like the old terrace days……even has “sways”…..

I was at the station 80 minutes before the train I need to catch – and just made it.  Train packed, of course.  Roasting hot.

On the way home:

Get to Kings Cross early…..but all trains are suspended - all of them!

Someone has been knocked down on the tracks at somewhere called Hornsey.  Still no trains moving and no further info.

Been on this concourse an hour now. It is jam packed: no more people can get into Kings Cross. Still no more info. Two hours' worth of trains unmoved on notice boards.

A Cambridge train is boarding.  Update later. 

Get on train after mad dash with hundreds of people. Hundreds on the train, hundreds haven't made  it. Jammed solid.  People sitting on top of each other. I’m in the middle of a carriage, standing. 

I wish I was almost anywhere but here.  Still on train but not moving and no announcements! It was full to bursting but more people have got in somehow....hotter than a sauna now.....can hardly move enough to type so putting phone away.

Been in this roasting tin can for an hour now. Still nothing. Got a signal and texted home; partner says a Cambridge train just left platform 3. Dammit. No movement here on platform 8.

Someone nearby got through to customer relations...absolutely farcical call….she didn't know of any delay and said we’d never have been told to board train if there was a known problem.  It was pointed out to her it had been reported on the national news over an hour ago and at the station about three hours ago......she said there was no record of any problems on her screens…. transpires she is in India reading off an auto prompter….!!!

No change. A guy with rail insignia appeared but ran away when we shouted questions….

No change except heat even more intense. People close to passing out. I think someone has fainted and been passed out of the carriage. Means I can sit cross-legged on the floor now, at least.

Someone is on the platform in a rail uniform….three people from near the doors have got out and cornered him…explanation at last!  And it is: "There's no driver, mate - dunno when he'll be along." Aaaaaaaaaaargh!

Breathing some  air now, very stale but air at last: I’ve stuck my face out the window in the tunnel - people had to leave, couldn’t take it anymore….I’ll wait a bit longer.

Apparently 3 other Cambridge trains (2 fast ones) have left before us despite being announced after ours 

Moving at last, will be a very slow journey but with air and room to move legs, finally…………………..

Text © Andrew Muir, 2012; photograph of Cambridge train station © Michael Gray, 2012