28 October, 2008

Engineering works and disruption - Redhill to Coulsdon South

Engineering Works
All the fun of the "fare" today...there are *week* long engineering works on the line that goes from Redhill to Coulsdon South meaning *all* trains from our area to London Bridge have been completely cancelled...two alternatives are left, (neither of them are particularly attractive) -

1 - Bus to Redhill, wait for a replacement bus service to Purley (and there are terrible road works along there that we discovered on Timmy's stag do), wait at Purley for a train to East Croydon, then wait at East Croydon for a service to London Bridge - estimated journey time - how long is a piece of string...?
2 - Drive to Earlswood as usual (wade through the crowds of people who have come from Redhill that aren't usually Earlswood passengers), wait on the wrong platform (no sign to tell us, thanks) for a train to Victoria (which is the wrong side of London completely for the Docklands), forget trying to find a seat and just look for any tiny space to crush into), this train then has to go the wrong way down the track, wait until nothing is coming (took about ten minutes this morning) and then sneak onto the Gatwick Express line (which is not part of the engineering works), get off at Victoria (where 3 of the entrances to the tube were closed today thanks to overcrowding by all the extra people trying to use it), get the District line to Westminster and then change onto the Jubilee line to complete my journey...

We did option two...and somehow, this total hash of a journey managed to get me into work about fifteen minutes earlier than usual...go figure...!

On the way home it's *five* separate stages on the railway alone (including the replacement bus through the road works), and the two tube journeys unless I can get on the train out of Victoria that leaves at 1710...somehow I get the feeling that this isn't going to be a very enjoyable week...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Based on that I feel *very* lucky that I am being allowed to get the 9.01 from Redhill to Victoria and get in late, and then leave early to get the 4.10pm from Victoria, getting me home for 5pm. Sorry Fink..... However, I am doing some work from home, and with my Blackberry I never switch off mentally or physically. Pah, not so good really, I replied to a client email at 9.30 last night. Silly me :-(

Flyingpops said...

I am enjoying my commute this week.. OK, it's an earlier start, but it's faster trains and I'm leaving work early, so am home before 6.. RESULT! but am also checking my blackberry at home (something I don't usually do!).. still off to Bristol tomorrow - what fun!

Anonymous said...

Option 3 of Earlswood to Horley, then fast towards London worked wonders. Especially with the increased frequency of the stopping services between Redhill and Horley.