Crazy day in London

Yesterday I had a pretty crazy day in London. In a few words: I had 3 train cancelled and I was stuck in the tube for 1 hour and a half!! The plan was to leave for London in the morning, arrive just before lunchtime, have lunch, go to university for a seminar and a chat with the teacher about my dissertation, go back home. I left plenty of time between these, so I can have a break. I also do a lot of work while I’m commuting, I tend to read a lot.

I arrived at the station in Liverpool a few minutes before the train was due to depart, but I it made no difference because it was cancelled. My husband and I went for a coffee at the pub in the station and it’s gorgeous. We will go there again before my train is due to leave, as it’s much nicer than waiting in the cold waiting area. I had to upgrade to Standard Premium when I got the next train, but the sockets were not working. So, very helpful, the staff told me to move to 1st class. It was crowded and I had to travel backwards, but at least I had a working socket and I could do my reading.

In London I went for lunch and walked to St. Pancreas. I like to go for a short walk if it’s nice outside. I took the tube from there and went to university. All was good, I had a great chat with my teacher. Going back I waited for the Hammersmith and City train. While in it, they announced it was changed to a District line. Got out and thought I am so lucky I left enough time between my trains. Waited for a while and a new H&C was not appearing. So, I’ve decided to take a District line train for 1 station, to Tower Hill. From there I wanted to get a Circle back to Euston.

I took this photo of the train before boarding the Circle line

I took the Circle from Tower Hill at a couple of minutes after 5pm. It stopped. The tube stopped midway from Tower Hill to Aldgate (10 minutes walk between these two). We waited and waited, got some updates, starting talking to each other. I did a bit of reading, a fellow traveller did a bit of reading. We had a chat, he and another fellow traveller had another chat. At about 6.30pm we arrived at Aldgate.
Funnily, when we arrived, the train operator told us that the doors need to be opened manually, while we were waiting to alight the train. My “that’s another half-hour” was received with laughs. It took only minutes though and we were out. Should I mention that instead of the £2.60 fee that’s between zone 1-2, I paid a staggering £8.90 because I spent too much time in the tube!? Yes, I paid 3 times more for being stuck in a train carriage between 2 stations!!

Gorgeous view, courtesy of TFL’s handling of problems within their network

My train was due to leave Euston in 15 minutes or so, which was 1 hour walk or 35 minutes by bus. I got the bus and after 40-45 minutes I alighted to walk the rest of the way, as it was faster like that. Also, I saw that the return train from 6.43 was cancelled, meaning I could get the following train without having to pay extra. Good… until I saw that the 7.43 train was cancelled too. After a quick chat with someone from another train company, which told me Avanti basically cancelled all their trains (it was not true, but who could risk it), I run to the platform to get a train to Crewe. I called my husband to come and pick me up, an hour drive from Liverpool, so not “too bad”.

This is it. 3 trains cancelled, one hour and a half in tube underneath London, and a funny story.