Happy Fridays

Oystercard fooked, tube delays up by 25%, possible strikes



Just another ordinary day on the tube.



Heard on the radio at the Oystercard system had a major failure last Friday, and has gone a bit squid shaped. It means sometimes that people swiping it on the blue thingies, don't get let through the barriers. There's already been a fair amount of comments on this blog about the Oystercard - is it shite? how far away from the blue thingy do you need to be to for the gates to open? is it a government plot so that they all know where Londoners travel to sell on to people who would like to know where all Londoners travel? (Like who else but the London Underground is going to be interested in that level of detail) and that's just for starters.



Yesterday The Evening Standard reported : "Tube passengers are suffering the worst service for more than a decade.



New figures show that delays have risen by almost 25 per cent in the past year, while the proportion of train journeys completed successfully has fallen dramatically."



Err, tell us something we don't know.



And finally to add to the woes, that possible strike I mentioned a few days ago about the tube track workers being "unfairly" sacked for having alcohol on them at work, is definitely on the cards. The thing is with the "Farringdon Five" as they're now being called, I first felt sorry for them, now it appears that over 100 empty cans of beer and cider were found in their mess room. Not wanting to accuse them of drinking on the job, but purleeese, wouldn't they at least have the sense to get rid of the cans. For more see the Evening Standard



Happy Friday.