A transport pattern

An imaginary tube illustration

There is one pattern I hate in London. It is the unreliable tube and especially Jubilee line. It is very rarely when the Jubilee line works like it should be. Most mornings and early evenings when I use this useless tube line, it has delays or suspensions because of variety of reasons. For example this morning I had to wait for a train to come more than 15 minutes in the peak hour because of a signal failure in Finchley Road. Then again, I had to tolerate another delay when commuting back home from work. And that was just a tip of the iceberg during the last few weeks. I do not know what is the ultimate problem with London's underground. It is very badly maintained, expensive and unreliable. The network is extensive, but obviously it can not handle the load it is having. Improvements are being made, but the upgrade works are badly late.

Usually, I compare things in London and Helsinki to my colleagues when I want to point out something that really works. In this case I will not do it, because Helsinki has only one undeground line compared to the vast network in London. But there are working metro systems in other big cities, like in Tokyo. Tokyo has three times more people than London but still their subway works like a clock-work. Maybe Boris Johnson and his advisors should make a excursion to Japan? I think the key thing to learn from the Japanese would be taking pride on what one does. Now I feel no one really cares about the tube and that shows in every aspect.