Part of me finds the mere existence of the London Underground amazing. The extensive network of tunnels deep below our capital city is, without doubt, an incredible feat of engineering. To be able to make my way from deepest, darkest Essex to the riches of West London in less than an hour is marvelous. And we must not take it for granted.
However, Transport for London is starting to, as Peter Griffin would say, grind my gears. Over-crowding. Delayed trains. Suspended services. Signal failures. And last week, four passenger emergency alarms on one Central line journey (granted, that's not particularly TfL's fault, but it still annoyed me enough to get a mention here).
The most irritating of all, however, is the ridiculous pricing of Oyster card fares. And in particular, the extortionate amount charged when someone like me, accidentally doesn't swipe in and out properly. Now, if this error was completely my fault, I would hold my hands up and not complain (as much). But this was solely the doing of London Underground and their stupid Oyster system.
On a stressful journey from Bank to Wimbledon via Waterloo, somewhere along the line my Oyster did not register correctly. What resulted was a journey, which should have been £4.60, ending up costing me £10. When Googling whether or not I could claim a refund (apparently I can't), I found that Waterloo is #1 in the list of stations over-charging passengers.
This did not surprise me. Waterloo is just a complete shambles, with barriers here, there and everywhere, and instructions to swipe in, out and in again. But for the amount of money TfL must bring in from passengers, you would think they could organise a proper Oyster system at one of their busiest commuter-hub stations. Although, thinking about it, their system seems to be a nice little earner for them. I don't see them changing it anytime soon.
