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mandragoraThey lied!
So, London has just experienced a mini-version of the great US/Canada power blackout. There was an interruption to the National Grid and the lights went out...over part of London, anyway. Was weird. Where I work in the City power was uninterrupted but buildings 5 minutes walk away were plunged into darkness.
As was the Tube and the trains. Pretty much the whole of London's public transport system ceased to work. During rush-hour. When it was pissing (and I mean *pissing*) down with rain. First I knew about the problem was just as I was on my way out of the office at 7pm, only to meet colleagues coming back to impart the glad tidings. All tube and train stations in the City were shut.
Gulp.
Tried the public transport websites. They were crap, but the Beeb imparted some info. I decided to walk towards Moorgate (15 minutes walk away) to see whether by some miracle the overground train was working. Not that I could actually get the overground all the way home due to a severe fire on a railway bridge on Tuesday that had produced a similar nightmare journey home. I'm in court tomorrow, so I was dragging a trolley full of papers behind me as I splashed up the street. Thankfully I had a brolly. Lots of people didn't...
The queues for the buses were *frightening*. Each was literally hundreds of people long. Not to mention that as I never really use the buses I had no idea whether any of them actually went anywhere near where I live (about 8 miles away). I was pondering glumly how long it would take me to actually get onto a bus as I neared Moorgate (could tell the station was not open) when I had a stroke of luck.
A (packed) bus came along destined for 'Wood Green'. Yes, only a couple of miles from where I live. And surely I could pick up another bus from there. But, damn, I wasn't at the bus stop so surely it wasn't going to--
Woo hoo! A chap just in front of me flashed his London Transport travel pass at the driver as the bus crawled up the street and it actually stopped and opened its doors! The chap and I jumped on (squeezed on is perhaps more accurate). The bus stopped a bit further up the road. The driver let a couple of passengers out but didn't let anyone on, fearing a mass stampede by the poor drenched beleaguered bastards at the bus stop.
The Blitz/Dunkirk spirit was alive and well on the bus. We wee all cheerful because we were:
(a) out of the rain
(b) actually travelling somewhere. Slowly.
I lent my mobile to make a phone call to a woman whose battery had run out, someone else was handing round sweeties, people were actually (gasp!) chatting to one another and volunteering information as to the best route to get home, as many people had decided to get on the first available bus that was going in vaguely the right direction.
Eventually, the bus reached its destination. End of the line. Oh shit! Buses to where I need to go were extremely thin on the ground. Looks like walking was the only option. Now normally a couple of miles walk is no problem at all, even in the pouring rain and dragging a document trolley behind me. Trouble is, as a result of the train-fire on Tuesday I ended up walking a couple of miles that day as well, in unsuitable shoes.
My feet are *wrecked*. Multiple raw blisters.
But. I had no choice. I started walking and noted grimly just when my feet started to bleed. And then, second bit of luck. A taxi - and honest-to-God taxi! Available for hire! Yes!
the taxi-driver didn't actually know anything about the powercuts, as she'd only just started her shift. She was rubbing her hands in glee at the thought of all those fares, though. *g*
Finally staggered through the door at 9.15pm. Two and a quarter hours to travel 8 miles. Now, that's progress.
So, London has just experienced a mini-version of the great US/Canada power blackout. There was an interruption to the National Grid and the lights went out...over part of London, anyway. Was weird. Where I work in the City power was uninterrupted but buildings 5 minutes walk away were plunged into darkness.
As was the Tube and the trains. Pretty much the whole of London's public transport system ceased to work. During rush-hour. When it was pissing (and I mean *pissing*) down with rain. First I knew about the problem was just as I was on my way out of the office at 7pm, only to meet colleagues coming back to impart the glad tidings. All tube and train stations in the City were shut.
Gulp.
Tried the public transport websites. They were crap, but the Beeb imparted some info. I decided to walk towards Moorgate (15 minutes walk away) to see whether by some miracle the overground train was working. Not that I could actually get the overground all the way home due to a severe fire on a railway bridge on Tuesday that had produced a similar nightmare journey home. I'm in court tomorrow, so I was dragging a trolley full of papers behind me as I splashed up the street. Thankfully I had a brolly. Lots of people didn't...
The queues for the buses were *frightening*. Each was literally hundreds of people long. Not to mention that as I never really use the buses I had no idea whether any of them actually went anywhere near where I live (about 8 miles away). I was pondering glumly how long it would take me to actually get onto a bus as I neared Moorgate (could tell the station was not open) when I had a stroke of luck.
A (packed) bus came along destined for 'Wood Green'. Yes, only a couple of miles from where I live. And surely I could pick up another bus from there. But, damn, I wasn't at the bus stop so surely it wasn't going to--
Woo hoo! A chap just in front of me flashed his London Transport travel pass at the driver as the bus crawled up the street and it actually stopped and opened its doors! The chap and I jumped on (squeezed on is perhaps more accurate). The bus stopped a bit further up the road. The driver let a couple of passengers out but didn't let anyone on, fearing a mass stampede by the poor drenched beleaguered bastards at the bus stop.
The Blitz/Dunkirk spirit was alive and well on the bus. We wee all cheerful because we were:
(a) out of the rain
(b) actually travelling somewhere. Slowly.
I lent my mobile to make a phone call to a woman whose battery had run out, someone else was handing round sweeties, people were actually (gasp!) chatting to one another and volunteering information as to the best route to get home, as many people had decided to get on the first available bus that was going in vaguely the right direction.
Eventually, the bus reached its destination. End of the line. Oh shit! Buses to where I need to go were extremely thin on the ground. Looks like walking was the only option. Now normally a couple of miles walk is no problem at all, even in the pouring rain and dragging a document trolley behind me. Trouble is, as a result of the train-fire on Tuesday I ended up walking a couple of miles that day as well, in unsuitable shoes.
My feet are *wrecked*. Multiple raw blisters.
But. I had no choice. I started walking and noted grimly just when my feet started to bleed. And then, second bit of luck. A taxi - and honest-to-God taxi! Available for hire! Yes!
the taxi-driver didn't actually know anything about the powercuts, as she'd only just started her shift. She was rubbing her hands in glee at the thought of all those fares, though. *g*
Finally staggered through the door at 9.15pm. Two and a quarter hours to travel 8 miles. Now, that's progress.
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no subject
Date: 29 August 2003 05:24 (UTC)And yeah. I was lucky. I've just got back into the office and colleagues talk of waiting for an hour and a half in the pouring rain until they could actually get on a bus. If at all. Some had to ask their relatives to drive into London to pick them up. Or find a hotel.
And apparently everytime a taxi drew up, they were charging inflated fares (I paid the normal amount), not to mention causing a scrummage as the horde tried to pile in.
Yes, it could have been worse. I could've been actually *on* the tube when the power failed - 250,000 people had to be evacuated by walking along the tunnel platforms, only to find when they staggered out of the station that there was no way to get home.
Questions Are Being Asked as to how a 30 minutes power failure led to this. Maybe something will be done (like restoring the tube's independent power system that finally closed as recently as, oh, last year!). Maybe...