Desperately trying to leave London 27 Dec 2025

[fandroid]

I had a fun day yesterday. Aiming for Victoria to get me to Clapham Junction for SWR services (Waterloo was totally shut) I headed for the Victoria Line at Walthamstow, only for it to be suspended due to an incident at Finsbury Park. No problem, head upstairs to the Overground. Oh, it's only going as far as London Fields. OK, go to Hackney Downs and walk to Hackney Central. Oh. Mildmay Line suspended between Highbury & Islington and Honor Oak. Oh, next train east cancelled & following train mysteriously develops random delay disease. Eventually get to Stratford. Decide on Lizzie Line to Whitechapel. Train crammed but got there OK. Ran onto a District Line train, got a seat at Tower Hill. Got to Victoria. Battled through a human wave coming off the high number platforms. Found a Littlehampton train, with a toilet (I needed one by this time). Got to Clapham. Another human wave coming down the stairs. Went to the barriers to tap out of my London journey and tap into my SWR journey. Walked over the bridge to the SWR mainline platforms, but no train indicator on the bridge mentioned any trains. Glanced down and saw crowds on the platform. Joined them and the PA immediately announced a (30 mins delayed) Portsmouth train. As it was due to stop at Woking I adopted my normal rail disruption protocol - get as near home as possible at the first opportunity. "A disrupted train in the hand is worth two in the bush".

Half the crowd stayed on the platform in hope of a Southampton train. We swiftly got to Woking at platform 4. I'm not used to that for Portsmouth via Guildford trains. Saw a Basingstoke stopper on the departures board due to depart instantly from platform 5. Dashed over. There was an Alton train there, but then I spotted the front units were for Basingstoke but with dark door buttons. Guard looked kindly on us who had rushed over the bridge and we got in. It immediately departed. He also gave mislocated Alton line passengers a chance to correct themselves at Brookwood.

I got to Basingstoke. 9 min wait for a number 1 bus.

Finally got home. What is normally a 2 hr door to door journey took 3hrs 30 mins.

 

[davews]

Looks like I had an easy ride. Marks Tey to Martins Heron. Got off at Stratford, managed to squeeze into the lift, but subway was jammed solid. Had decided on Central Line to Mile End then District to Victoria which actually worked out well though the Central Line train was jam packed. Victoria huge wave coming down the stairs to the tube the other way though otherwise not too bad. Lunch in the Wetherspoons (also jammed) then headed to the Southern platforms and caught a Horsham train to CJ. Never seen the subway at Clapham Junction so busy. As you say the departure boards were saying 'next train doesn't stop here' and chap on platform making announcements. Had just missed one Reading train but in due course the 1358 arrived and I was on my way.

 

[DelW]

... the PA immediately announced a (30 mins delayed) Portsmouth train. As it was due to stop at Woking I adopted my normal rail disruption protocol - get as near home as possible at the first opportunity. "A disrupted train in the hand is worth two in the bush".

Half the crowd stayed on the platform in hope of a Southampton train. We swiftly got to Woking at platform 4. I'm not used to that for Portsmouth via Guildford trains.

Obviously there was a lot of disruption yesterday because of the Waterloo block, but even in normal times, it's not that unusual for Portsmouth trains via Guildford to use Woking p4 rather than the more common p5.

What has seemed odd to me on occasion has been to be on a via Guildford train in p4 while an Alton train uses p5, which is likely to cause a delay while the junction conflict clears. I presume it's that the Pompey has come in via the down fast while the Alton has used the down slow.