What I Hate About London

Even now, I can already tell that one of the major themes of WIHL will be how London is just a bloody rip off. One of the biggest ripoffs in London however is the Tube. The Tube system charges you a ridiculous £4 per single ride. They don’t care if you’re going one stop or 10, they are going to fleece you for the whole £4. You would think in a city that has so many cameras per square foot that it makes 1984 look like a privacy activists wet dream, the authorities would be able to figure out how to charge the rider a floating rate for distance traveled. But no, I suppose the British education system just doesn’t teach anything other than extortion.

Once you’ve coughed up the GDP per capita of a number of nations to get into the tube station, which more than likely has random holes in the ceiling and water damage on the roof. Let me tell you, nothing quite makes you feel safe below ground in a tunnel than seeing random chunks of the support structure missing or numerous cracks caused by water damage everywhere. Classy London. Very Classy.

So you’re sitting below ground in a tunnel that is probably a nudge on the Richter away from absolute collapse and you get onto the actual train. Now keep in mind how much money you have paid to ride on this rickety piece of garbage. The trains that they run in the tube obviously are not modern nor are they reliable. Not a single day goes by without there being some sort of problem with the whole system. One day, you’ll have a derailed train. The next, a gas leak will cause the whole system to shut down. Even if the trains are running smoothly, you’ll be liable to unforeseen delays on your journey because the train will randomly decide to stop for twenty minutes below ground with the lights flickering on and off. HOORAY!

All I’m saying is that if they insist on jobbing you out of all your cash in order to get a 15 minute ride in the worst subway system in the world, they could at least spend some of that money on improving the network. You would think that the two go hand in hand. I mean the excuse for closing the tube at 1230 is that they need to do maintenance on the track. What the hell are they doing maintenance on when the next day you wake up to Major Delays on the Circle, District, Bakerloo and Metropolitans lines?

Charge less or stay open longer. Oh and Transport for London could probably do with hiring people who are competent at their jobs, maybe then everything won’t break down all the effing time.