The Archive

Bustards

Nice two and a half hour journey to work this morning. I got as far as Golders Green when signal failure struck.

No problem. The kind announcer declared 'the train will terminate here. Passengers for further stations must take a replacement bus service'.

Now to me, a 'replacement bus service' means a fleet of buses laid on to drive from station to station on the roads. It's a bit less efficient, sure. And it's been well documented that I hate buses, but still, I need to get to work.

So I duly toddle out of the station. There is a helpful, smiling attendant there.

"Good morning," I say, "Which way for the bus to Colindale?"
"There isn't one," she replies, drawing deeply on her cigarette.

Right then.

It turns out that in the far North of London, 'a replacement bus service' actually means 'there is a bus stop outside. Good luck.'

Fortunately, there was another helpful person who told me I could get a bus to Mill Hill Broadway then another bus to Colindale from there.

They were right. Technically. Sadly what they failed to mention was that there was a different bus that took about a quarter of the time to do the same journey.

Bloody Northerners.

posted by Peter The Great @ 8:18 PM