Philobiblon

I seem to have had a whirl over the past couple of days, going from one end of London to the other, and one side of the region to the other. But a very slow whirl.

On Friday night I went from Cyprus (very nearly to Beckton) on the Docklands Light Rail (where I’d been giving a short talk about media jobs at the University of East London – and met, among many other interesting people the writer of this site on Korean film) to Richmond for dinner with a friend visiting from Brussels. That from far east London to far west.

Anyone who knows London will by now be sucking their teeth – you seem to be able to get across Paris in the blink of an eye, but London, ah London. I made Cyprus to Richmond in about one hour 30 mins, with a 10-minute Tube pause at Gloucester Road for “signal problems”, and considered I’d done pretty well. And the diners had even kindly waited for me to order their main courses.

Then yesterday it was off to Brighton for a spot of Green Party canvassing – which should be a simple quick train journey of about an hour. But of course it was the weekend – but while it was still possible to take the train, that now took 2 hours 20 mins, and the recommended route was train to Three Bridges then replacement bus service – screaming down the motorway at a London bus’s top speed – scary stuff. And by the time I got back I’d of course missed the last Tube, and had a crawling No 29 nightbus journey journey through the West End to Somer’s Town – probably would have been just as fast to walk.

One day perhaps Britain will sort out its public transport. But I wouldn’t care to bet on it.