Monday 21 December 2009

Dear Boris

Dear Boris,
It was lovely in London today, all snowy and white. Then I tried getting home. I finally lost patience waiting for a 48 bus to turn up at London Bridge after an hour of waiting so I started walking. I live in Hackney Central, it's a long way when you have a back pack full of lovely beer and a laptop.
Luckily once on London Bridge itself I was able to hail a cab and thankfully got in from the freezing cold temperatures and now slushy ice all over the pavement.
The roads were packed (even though there were no buses to be seen) and the journey took three times longer than usual. Once we got to the vicinity of Hackney I told the driver to let me out and I walked the last mile, this was the quickest part of my journey.
Now, I've lived in London all my life and I have never known the transport system be so totally defenceless once it snows. Yes, historically there have always been cancellations and delays but never this bad and this city is the CAPITAL, it should be able to cope by now should it not?
Please inform your constituents when you feel the appropriate time will be to finally get this city's transport links up to the standards it's inhabitants deserve.
I dread to think what will happen in 2012 when the city will be under the spotlight of the entire world.
I for one will be getting out of London in 2012 for the duration of the Olympics if you and your administration cannot get this situation under control. I also know many people who have the same thinking.
Yours Sincerely
Rabidbarfly.

5 comments:

Mark said...

Ah man that's rough. I feel for you. I managed to get out of work early enough to miss the worst of the problems.

Last time we had snow though, they terminated my train at Waterloo leaving me stranded an hours walk from work and home. Lovely.

Treat yourself to one of those beers you were carrying.

rabidbarfly said...

I'm currently drinking a bottle of O'Hanlons Port Stout. It's a bit disappointing since I have it on cask at The Rake and it's fantastic.

Brew Wales said...

Never used to be that bad. Can remember doing a Firkin pub crawl back in the '91 snow. Uni was cancelled but tubes were still working!

rabidbarfly said...

It's totally ridiculous, I'm almost certainly going to be walking most of the way to work today because the buses will be buggered.

Sid Boggle said...

When London last had snow in February, it took around an INCH to bring the whole place juddering to a halt for two days. Buses were quarantined, tubes and trains were a shambles.

For a city with so much 'government', by which I mean local authorities, departments like the Highways Agency and the Mayor's office and TFL, we do a pretty crappy job of coping with minor bits of adverse weather.