Where was I

I seem to have forgotten that this thing existed. Anyway, back to a possibly (ab)normal service.

The trains seem to have realised that being on time is good for the mental wellbeing of those trapped inside and are doing it far more often. I haven't had cause to attempt a Delay Repay claim since February. This is also good for my sanity as it avoids having to attempt communication with FCC customer relations, who have many staff who may fail the Turing Test. I haven't seen a ticket inspector on a peak hour train since Christmas, and should really raise this and other such operational errors with a higher power.

I have managed a particularly elegant ticket combination which allows me to go to my parents in Newcastle from London, traveling in peak hours both ways, for about £55. The cunning bit is to start a cheap advance ticket from Peterborough. The conditions of carriage can also be exploited to allow me to travel from London to Peterborough non stop with my season ticket and a Hitchin - Peterborough ticket. GNER don't get any of the revenue as far as Peterborough, but the rules are clear enough. I also get 1st class on the outward journey from Peterborough, as a GNER 1st Advance 1 ticket was the cheapest left of any type. This doesn't make much sense, but I'm not complaining about the result.

On Time? It's a Miracle!

I got to work before 9am this morning I nearly fainted. I also told someone who I've seen habitually using oyster between KCM and CTK for a couple of months about the season ticket that I got on Sunday. She was very pleased.

The Man with Two Gold Cards

After some fiendishly complicated maths and the introduction of the new rip off zonal fares I finally decided to get a KX Thameslink to City Thameslink season ticket. This is £384 for the year, rather cheaper than the Cambridge to London one, but not as good pence per mile. I know I should have got it before the new year, but at least the rise was regulated.

Getting Cambridge station to sell me one was fun. I must have repeated "I don't want a Travelcard at least five times, and had to use the complicated maths to fend off the "Isn't Oyster cheaper?" argument. At least the thing works the gates at King's Cross Thameslink, until my coat demagnetises it. The ticket office at City Thameslink has a habit of selling malfunctioning tickets.

For your pleasure/agony/indifference, the maths follows.

I typically travel between KCM and CTK five days a week.

Using Oyster both ways = £1.50 * 2 * 5 = £15
Gold card dicount in the evening = (£1.50 + (0.66 * £1.80)) * 5 = £13.50
Seven Day Season = £9.60 = 3.6 days with paper faff (Most seasons work out at at least 4 if not 5)
Annual ticket = £384 = 40 weeks.

The end result is that the season ticket is better value even if I don't use it once a week (in practice this happens about once every three weeks), and provided that I use it for at least 40 weeks. Given that I have to get to work somehow this shouldn't be a problem, unless I get spirited to New York again for more than a couple of weeks. In that case though I'd be having far too much fun with the corporate amex to notice.

I also avoid the dangers of forgetting to touch out (not having done so yet is a miracle) and running out of cash for the ticket machines. Take your oyster card, and shove ...

Mortgage Minefield

Well it seems that I can afford to buy a house in Cambridge, but anyone who works there in a similar job to mine might be out of luck.

Actually getting a mortgage appears to be some sort of horrid death by numbers, with lower usually being better. I must be in contact with at least four advisers by now, but finding one without at least ten hidden agendas is proving difficult. I may have found one at last today, but will reserve judgement until I actually meet him.

Amongst his advice (which makes sense when you think about it) is to never let the estate agent know anything too detailed of a financial nature, as otherwise you instantly lose all haggling power. On the other hand you have to give them at least a vague figure as I'm after a 2 bed terrace and not Cherry Hinton Hall (although I'm sure that would be a nice place to live).

Halifax managed to send me to the wrong branch for an appointment, but luckily getting to the right one involved only a few phone calls and a stroll along Cannon Street. Their numbers weren't too great, but were better than some.

Oh, and I actually need to find a house.

Hello and Goodbye 442s

Well that new year thing happened, so one of my resolutions is to actually use this thing occasionally.

I went on my first and last 442 bash last Saturday. First class was very nice, it's a pity that you can't get real compartments anywhere else now. They'd be so useful for keeping screaming children at bay, and certainly worth the money. However I used the Gold Card upgrade mechanism (which has gone from £3 to £5. Curses!). However the thermostat for the heating/air con seemed to be purely for show, and instead controlled by a random number generator.

Weymouth was full of rain and nothing else of note.

I found the lounge area by the buffet particularly interesting. I suppose that's another thing we'll never see again as at least twice as many people could be forced into the space. It had obviously been neglected going by the seats practically collapsing and the tables not being capable of supporting anything in an upright position.

Oh, and I got to stick my head out of the window a bit. That was fun.

On returning to London I discovered that Cambridge ticket office had managed so sell me a Zones 1-2 travelcard with a young person's railcard discount. This is rather different to the Zones 1-6 travelcard with Gold Card discount that I requested. I blame the dodgy new bluetooth headset microphone system, not the ticket clerk. It was like talking over a tin can telephone. I'll send the offending ticket to One if I remember.

Miscellaneous Observations on the New York Subway

Having been a daily commuter on the New York Subway for five weeks, many things have struck me as being better, inferior or just different to other underground systems, with the London Underground being my main other experience. They are summarised in no particular order here.

• There are express trains which skip several stops to get passengers around faster and confuse tourists.
• The subway runs 24 hours a day. But you can have a long wait of unknown length for a train after midnight.
• If you manage to get a seat it is a plastic bench rather than something vaguely soft covered in moquette.
• Most trains still have guards (or conductors as they call them). If you're lucky you might be able to understand what they're saying on the PA.
  
• Guards seem to like shutting the doors while passengers are still boarding. This is the case even when the passengers in question were waiting well before the train arrived.
• As a result of this door holding is extremely common. But can you blame people when their friends are being crushed or left behind through no fault of their own?
  
• On some subway lines the maintenance leaves something to be desired. The ride quality on some lines is so bad that it feels like the train has square wheels.
• As a result of this the noise, especially when a corner is encountered, is horrific.
• Many older trains don't have full width cabs. So everyone can have a "cab ride" by peering out of the front door.
• There are no train describers. So people peer down the tunnels looking for headlights and even feel for telltale breezes. Maybe it would have been quicker to walk, but there is no way of knowing in advance.
  
• The fare is a flat $2 regardless of how far you go.
• You can get 1 day, 7 day or 30 day unlimited Metrocards, but not annual tickets for some reason.
• It takes at least two attempts to get a turnstile to accept a Metrocard, which needs to be swiped precisely to be read correctly.
• You get free transfer to/from bus and subway.
• It is quicker to walk then to get the bus in rush hour.
• You need to use the entrance on the correct side of the street at some stations or either lose $2, wait 18 minutes if you have an unlimited card or take a train to the next station with a cross passage.
• Stations have long names based mostly on the road junction they are located at.
• Most stations have black (or maybe just not cleaned) walls, making them rather dark.
• The signage often leaves something something to be desired, and is sometimes completely wrong.
• The map is geographical and can be very difficult to follow, especially when lines get close together.
  
• The "Pocket" map is about the same size as an OS map.
• If anything goes wrong you tend to find out about it too late to take an alternative route as there are no station announcements or boards to indicate problems.
• Service alterations are often indicated very poorly, if at all on stations. I've seen whole platforms of people waiting for a train which won't arrive for two days.
• There are scheduled trains which take routes which aren't marked on the map, such as the very limited rush hour E service to 179 St Jamaica.
• Apparently 8:30pm is rush hour, so I ended up returning along that branch having already visited on an F.
• Many stations have almost identical names, so double check before exiting.
• There are abandoned platforms at some stations with nothing more than a very small "No Trains" sign to stop passengers entering.
• The one at Columbus Circle also has a sign labelled "A C B D Trains" pointing at it.
• "No Trains" actually means "Employees Only" (What about contractors?)
• Abandoned platforms are sometimes full of (hopefully clean) laundry.
• If an interchange isn't logical for the average passeneger it may not be signed at all. (E to J at Jamaica Center)
• The length of an interchange line on a map is proportional to its length.
• If you're thinking of interchanging from Times Square to Port Authority Bus Terminal don't (unless catching a bus). It makes Bankument look like a cross platform interchange.

Roller Coaster Subway

Yesterday I went for a ride on the 7 Train to Flushing in Queens. Unlike many of the other lines, which are in pretty nondescript sub surface for most of their length, this gets interesting as soon as it leaves Grand Central as it passes through the Steinway Tunnels, which used to be a cable railway under the East River, predating the subway in a similar manner to the Thames Tunnel on the East London Line.

The real fun begins at Hunters Point Avenue, where the subway turns into what can only be described as something of an elevated roller coaster, with 90 degree bends and some really steep gradients. It gets even better after Queensborough Plaza if you managed to get an express, which misses many of the stations out and gets to about 50 mph (the speedometer registered 80 and more at times, but this was definitely erroneous as such acceleration would have sent all of the passenegers flying).

View north from 111 Street

Just when you thought that it couldn't get any less like a typical subway line the express track rises even higher to avoid the depot tracks, going through the already elevated 111 St station on a viaduct over everything else. There is then a pretty steep descent through Willets Point to the underground station at Main Street.

111 Street Station

W Train leaving Queensborough Plaza

What am I supposed to pack for ten weeks?

Ten weeks is about the same length as a Cambridge term. I usually survived this long with a room full of stuff, much of which was delivered by Mum's taxi at some point or other. In fact there was so much stuff that two trips were needed around graduation, and I had to return on the train.

Unfortunately this time I need to fit everything into two suitcases and a carry on bag. The hotel I'm staying in (but not paying the bills of thankfully) comes with the usual towels, shampoo etc as well as a kitchen so that's quite a lot that I won't need. Even so I still don't know where to start with what to pack.

Bob Crow I love you

Just when I thought that my plans for my first day at work were going so well it seems that the signaller members of the RMT are going on strike next Friday, which happens to be my first day at work. Luckily it doesn't start till noon, so at least I stand a chance of getting to London from Grandma's in the morning. Getting home could be tricky in the worst case. In reality however there is likely to be no obvious effect as there should be enough staff to cover things.