Painting the Town

One of the things that strikes anyone when they step off the tube at Camden Town is that it is in dire need of a new lick of paint. However I think someone took it a bit too literally over the Christmas period. According to the BBC, apparently some vandals broke in whilst the station was closed and did some redecorating. Indeed, the first thing I noticed on my return to work the other day was the station had apparently been renamed to Damden Town, complete with 'home of the damned' scrawled underneath it. Entire walls, adverts and even one of the display boards are now covered in a multitude of festive colours. My particular favourite is a message reading 'Happy Birthday Jesus' across one wall.

There's some photos of the carnage here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveknapik/sets/72157594440789560/

Apparently they got in by walking down the tunnel. Now that's a long way, talk about dedication to your art!

Grinding to a Halt

It's that odd wasteland again between Christmas and New Year when most people see the sense to stay tucked up in bed and recharge their batteries. For the unlucky few, however, there is still the need to work. Those that work in retail, for example, as well as those who work for essential services such as at hospitals or for the law. Then there's folk like me who used up all of their annual leave trying in vain to catch up on sleep, but anyway, these people still need to get to and from work. As I am finding out, at this time of year that is becoming an even more unlikely task than ever.

For many years now the government, hand in hand with the numerous private firms in charge of the various areas of the transport system in this country, have been working closely together with the eventual aim of preventing anyone from getting anywhere. Straight from the age old school of thought that 'if people have to pay more for something it will discourage them to do it', we've had massive rises in the two motorist taxes*, as well as huge rises in the cost of using public transport**. Throw in a gradual reduction in service and it really seems like the grand plan is starting to pay off.

Take my journey to work this morning for example. Firstly somewhere along the way Southern have decided that whilst it is clearly a week day, they will operate trains to their weekend timetable. Granted, this reduced service wouldn't be such a pain in the arse if I hadn't arrived at the station to find the train on my usual route had been cancelled anyway. Rather than wait around for three quarters of an hour in the freezing weather, I considered my options and decided my best route would then be to jump on the next bus outside the station, to Morden, taking the Northern Line in to work. After some waiting, then some more waiting, I finally arrived at Morden in my car. I seem to recall a lot of talk not so long ago about the powers that be 'encouraging' people to use public transport by stating that the vast majority of train and tube stations have decent, well maintained car parks. Indeed as I discovered, Morden appears to have exactly that. What they neglected to mention is the £4 charge to park there. Still, I guess there wasn't space on the newsletter.

Anyway, I'd made the extra effort and as the tube train pulled out of the station I sat back and thought to myself that at least I would only be ten minutes late. I would have been, if it wasn't for the 'massive signal failure at Oval' that struck just as the train I was on reached the Tootings.

I hear they're going to raise the tax on shoes soon too.


* The official tax (road tax) on my car has gone up significantly over the last few years and is now the better part of £200. The unofficial tax on the same thing (petrol tax) has gone up even more. When I started driving in 1998, prices near me were around 59p a litre... now it's usually 95p or more.

** When I started regularly commuting into London two years ago, my travel card was around £129. They've just put it up, again. It's now £153.

Commercial Interest

It's that time of year once again where the already abysmal television becomes a wash of fake cheer and artificial jolliness in the run up to Christmas. Yep, it's the time of year when the folks at DFS replace their usual sale signs with tinsel bordered ones, Coca Cola play that bloody annoying jingle and all of the big supermarket chains repeatedly tell us all about their wonderful deals on turkey and stuffing, in a friendly manner of course. As well as all that, every second advert from the hours of 6am until 9pm appears for the sole reason of persuading children to nag their parents for the latest overpriced toy or gadget on the market. Now believe it or not, this cynical bastard is all for a bit of seasonal cheer and I'm quite partial to getting in to the spirit of Christmas, it's just a shame that somewhere along the line the real magic of the event got hijacked by commercial enterprise and is now systematically raped each and every year all over the place.

It's sickening. And every year it gets worse.

This year, for instance, a certain company selling blinds has jumped on the bandwagon, advertising their product as if it were the perfect present for a loved one. What next?

"Treat your significant other to the present they've always wanted this year. Here at Dave's Skip Hire we're going mad for Christmas and slashing 1.5% off all of our hire costs, order now to guarantee delivery by Christmas day and avoid disappointment."

The Week of Delay

If the two and a bit years of commuting daily into and across this country's capital city has taught me anything, it's that not only do we have one of the most expensive public transport systems, the claims about it being one of the worst are, if anything, understated. Long ago I learned the valuable lesson never to rely on it any more than I have to, but I was always under the illusion that as bad as things were, they couldn't really get any worse. After all, a delay here and there, it's just a normal part of everyday life on this island isn't it? I mean travel disruption is almost as english as the sandwich.

But I have to say, in light of all of this, the joint efforts of Southern and LU this week truly have impressed me. Up until now I was under the impression that it would be more or less an impossibility for me to experience a whole week of non-stop delays, but lo and behold they have managed it. Yes, they should be proud. Since last Thursday I have experienced at least one big problem along my daily route that has in most instances doubled my travel time.

Therefore I would like to say that the -L-145 a month I spend on my travelcard is now in my opinion my number one biggest unavoidable waste of money, having easily overtaken both the Television Tax* and the Refuse Collection Tax**.


* Whilst not strictly a necessity, the BBC TV license is mandatory for anyone owning a television. This is of course regardless of the fact that there is nothing worth watching actually being broadcast, and the fact that a person might simply own one for the purpose of watching DVDs or hooking up a games console.

** Also known as the Council Tax. I have yet to find out exactly what this is for other than the binmen coming round twice a week and occasionally replacing the glass in the bus stop opposite every time a drunk chav becomes annoyed with his own reflection.