Avoiding the Rain on the Train
One of the reasons, I wanted to use the bus to get home, even if it meant a change, was that it was raining hard. If I could have ended up on any one of several routes, I would have been dropped within a hundred metres of my house. Usually when you change buses, you don’t get that wet too, if you choose the changeover with care.
I have three choices of train from Stratford. I usually take one of.
- The Overground to Dalston Kingsland and walk.
- The Overground to Hackney Central and get a bus.
- Central line to Bank and then a bus.
All though would have meant a ten minute walk in the rain. And I didn’t have an umbrella with me.
So in the end, I took the Overground to Canonbury, then back on the East London line to Dalston Junction and then a bus along the Balls Pond Road. Not the simplest, but definitely the driest. It was very wet as this picture at Canonbury shows.
Canonbury in the Rain
To make matters worse, my preferred route via Hackney Central requires a walk over an uncovered bridge and I wasn’t the only person, who on seeing the weather there, declined to get off.
The Overground is one of those modes of transport, that is very good in fine weather, but some stations get you very wet, when it rains heavily.
The amount of passengers using the line is starting to cause problems. I left Stratford in the rush hour and getting to the platforms was difficult because of large numbers of passengers going the other way. I used the lift to avoid them. The platforms also need a Next Train indicator, as is common on many parts of London’s railways, both over and under the ground.
The Anonymous Widower 
This photo does look like a very messy commute.
I miss England. I really miss the traditional English breakfast and that life stops twice a day for tea and biscuits! 🙂
Comment by travelingmad | September 26, 2011 |
It wasn’t too bad, as most people were in the trains. i was in a nice dry glazed shelter with about twenty or thirty others, waiting for the train to arrive. To be fair, it was on time and it wasn’t too crowded. I was only going one station and got a comfy seat too. I suppose i got wettest walking the fifty metres or so from the bus stop to my house. Ten years ago, if I’d done this journey, I’d have got home like a drowned rat.
Comment by AnonW | September 26, 2011 |