themodelcommuter

The inability of London, as a whole, to deal with weather never ceases to astound me. People complain that its too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold, not enough snow, too much snow… make your minds up!. Meanwhile, anything more than a slight drizzle and London’s roads grind to a halt. Its like no one has ever driven in rain before in their lives!

The UK’s rail companies, especially those serving London, are internationally renowned for their inability to deal with anything even bordering on inclement weather. Jokes about the ‘wrong type of snow’, and ‘leaves on the line’ are legendary, however, we no longer actually suffer from these problems.

You may or may not have noticed, but over the past 5 years icy, snow covered or leaf strewn tracks have all been lumped into one catch all excuse: poor railhead adhesion. I note with joy that I’ve actually made it to mid way through November before that excuse has been trolled out in anger replacing the now ubiquitous ‘congestion in the London Bridge area’.

There is always congestion in the London Bridge area. The only day there isn’t is on a Sunday and that’s because there are sod all trains running. I spent 5 years travelling to Cannon Street through London Bridge and I actually thought my train was supposed to arrive at 08:35, mainly because that’s the time it arrived most days. 3 years into that commute and I realised that it was meant to arrive at 08:25 and that the person apologising profusely for the late arrival of services due to ‘congestion in the London Bridge area’ (in later years it was reduced to just generally apologising with no reason given) was actually talking to me!

But I digress. The excuse given on this particular day was “Poor rail head adhesion due to adverse weather conditions, heavy rain, drizzle and fallen leaves”. In other words, rain, rain, rain an leaves. Its autumn, it rains a lot, leaves fall, they gunge up rails, rail head adhesion is lost, this is somehow important to maintaining a timetable. So why the yearly surprise? They have toys to clear this stuff now. I’ve seen reruns of the programs that showcase it, the technology is that old.

Here’s a hint for the rail companies. Its getting to be winter. Its going to get cold. Points will freeze if you don’t turn on the heaters. There: no longer a surprise. What’s the betting I’ll be ranting about frozen points in a few months time?

~ by The Model Commuter on November 17, 2006.