Communication Breakdown

I'm leaving London in a month's time so there is little time left for me to complain about the tube. I have said once before on this blog that it shouldn't really be used to rant about how bad the tube is and that hasn't been the case. I actually think that once you have lived in London for long enough, you stop bothering to complain about the tube. I have come to regard it as actually quite reliable of late; I don't know whether that is because it is reliable or whether my standards have just fallen. But really it's not that bad and one doesn't bother to complain about it any more because it's not going to achieve anything and will essentially just be a waste of energy.

What does bother me enough to have once complained, but now just to be bothered by and not complain; is the trivial things that seem to wreak havoc on the system. I appreciate that things go wrong and things break down, especially with such ageing infrastructure; but it's the lacklustre response by London Underground staff to many of these situtions that annoys.

Yesterday morning (Monday, everyone's favourite day) the station nearest my office was completely shut because of 'faulty communications equipment.' So essentially the station staffs' walkie-talkies had flat batteries and this is enough to shut down an entire station serving 3 of the busiest lines on the network. What on earth did they do before they had radios?

Like I said though, I'm not complaining.