On 20 Feb, 16:40, Tom Anderson wrote:
On Wed, 20 Feb 2008, Mizter T wrote:
Tom Anderson wrote:

On Mon, 18 Feb 2008, brixtonite wrote:

[...] I used to think 'I'm sure I'd've pushed my way on' when people
told me about waiting for a few trains go past, but having experienced
it (on the Northern line at Clapham/Stockwell/Kennington,) there's a
degree of crowding where you can push quite impolitely into the people
already on board and travel with your head in someone's armpit, and
then a degree of crowding where it is simply *not possible* to get on.

I used to go out with a girl who lived near Clapham South tube; she
went to work (by car!) pretty early by my standards, and so turfed me
out in the mornings in the height of rush hour to catch a Northern line
train to work. Thus, i've experienced this quite a bit, and it's
exactly as you say - quite unbelievable. Splitting up with her was
quite a relief!

It's like Dante's Inferno at the peak of the rush hour.

Worse - no Virgil!

Obviously the Northern line is a major factor in making Clapham a
popular district to live in, problem being that it's a victim of its own
success. For journeys from Clapham to the City the Northern line really
is the glaringly obvious route by public transport. One alternative is
the South London Line from Clapham High Street to London Bridge, but
that's a half-hourly two car train that also gets pretty busy.

On the southern side, ther are also trains from Balham, and i think
they're better than two cars twice an hour, but they go to Victoria, so
they don't compete with either branch of the Northern line. You can change
onto the Victoria line there, of course, which in principle could tempt
away some of the millions of people who take the Northern line to
Stockwell and then change, but the change at Victoria is much more of a
pain.


It's also frequently closed, although you can sneak round via the
District Line gates.