phenorbital » public transport http://blog.phenorbital.co.uk Blog of a graduate working in banking IT in London. Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:04:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Irritation of Snow http://blog.phenorbital.co.uk/2009/02/08/the-irritation-of-snow/ http://blog.phenorbital.co.uk/2009/02/08/the-irritation-of-snow/#comments Sun, 08 Feb 2009 20:08:02 +0000 Chris Hawley http://phenorbital.co.uk/?p=115 So, as mentioned the other day we had a fair bit of snow. In previous years this amount of snow would have been great, as I’d have had the day off school or uni due to it either being closed or me being unable to get there, and I’d have been able to spend the day partaking in the customary building of snowmen and snowball fights.

Of course, these days snow can still prevent me from getting to where I need to be, as Monday’s mass-failure of the entire transport network in London showed (I think at one point there was a single tube line operating a normal service, with all buses being cancelled at that time). This means that as long as my internet connection is still functional I still have to work, through the wonders of modern technology. This is all well and good, but my working from home setup is severely sub-optimal compared to the office, mainly due to only having a single monitor and not having a proper desk phone with headset for long conference calls.

Fortunately I had Monday booked off anyway (so as to get some sleep after the Superbowl) and by the time I came to head to work on Tuesday the transport system wasn’t too broken. We’ve also seen no snow since (and hopefully won’t have a tonne fall overnight) so even the woefully prepared councils around here might be able to get away without doing anything and I should still be able to get into the office tomorrow.

Of course, snow isn’t always an irritation – I’m off skiing at the end of the month, where a lack of snow would be quite frustrating. However in the case where I’ve got other things to do (like work) it’s going to prove to be an annoyance.

]]> http://blog.phenorbital.co.uk/2009/02/08/the-irritation-of-snow/feed/ 0 Buses http://blog.phenorbital.co.uk/2007/12/22/buses/ http://blog.phenorbital.co.uk/2007/12/22/buses/#comments Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:40:19 +0000 Chris Hawley http://phenorbital.co.uk/2007/12/22/buses/ Buses are the worst form of public transport in existence. This is a fact that I had grown to accept and understand during my time living in Leeds, I knew that they weren’t going to show up on time (if they showed up at all) and I accepted it. Unfortunately I’ve since moved to London where the public transport system (tube and DLR anyway) works more often than not.

So, when I come to head back to Leeds this weekend, I have no problem navigating from my flat to King’s Cross, nor from there over the hundreds of miles back to Leeds; even going so far as to arrive early! Happy with the progress public transport had allowed me to make thus far I wandered out of the train station and to the bus stop. This is where the problems arose.

At the bus stop is a sign with the next three buses, none of which were the one I wanted. I consulted the timetable, and it said “at least every 10 minutes” so I figured that’d be fine. So ten minutes pass. Then twenty. Eventually the sign now displays three of the bus I want, with the ETA of “due”… great. Finally, after about thirty minutes they all show up at once.

Ah well, I did eventually make it here, but I bet it’ll only be worse on Thursday when I come to make the return journey.

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