As another tube stream is imminent I thought now would be a good time to vent on my frustrations with public transport and how I choose to cope with them.
There was a time when I arrived into work foolishly on time, getting on a packed 7.30, 12 carriage train and then squeezing on the a Northern line train and then once again on the way home during rush hour, I learnt early on that you can only be so kind and considerate when riding a rush hour tube, lesson one:
Don’t be TOO kind
Not to be one of those arseholes who annoying stands right in the middle of the doors and refuses to get out of the way when people are trying to get off I once got off of a tube train to let people get off the train first and before I knew it everyone else piled on the train and I couldn’t get on the train. How do you deal with this? Now, I always make sure I keep one foot on the train or have a hold of the hand rail by the open door when I step off the train to let people get off.
Lesson two, Speak up!
One of the most frustrating things for me is people not moving down the full width of the train, why should people not be able to get on a tube train when there is plenty of room further down, tell the fuckers to move down!
Little story time….
So I am on my way home and I am trying to get on a tube, I see the tube pull into the station and see there is plenty of room further down the aisle way and think to myself that I’ll be able to get on this train easy, when the doors open and everyone is crammed in the door way I walk down to the windows and give a nice friendly knock on the window and make hand gestures to people to move down. I walk back to the doors and there is no movement! So I walk back to the windows, bang on them and turn the air Chelsea blue telling people to move down, needless to say I was getting frustrated and the tube driver saw how frustrated I was getting and invited me to ride with him upfront! Awesome!
Lesson three, don’t let anyone get in your way
My final grievance is that people do step to either side of the doors when they open and you are trying to get off, I have one simple solution for this, I have the attitude of if you are in my way I am going to walk through you and I couldn’t give a shit as to your age or gender, you will be getting my shoulder in your shoulder….
Only having the patience, and for the sheer sake of my sanity, I only choose to do this once a day, so in the mornings I wake up at 5am to get into London and it is such a peaceful commute!
… Tomorrow… the pain of getting on a London bus … I REALLY hate buses!
