Spoke too soon :-(

I was too trusting.

Virgin decided that a seven hour delay was insufficient. So they cancelled... sorry, "renamed" VS15 to VS115 and "rescheduled" it to tomorrow afternoon.   Nice.

There's a minor problem. I am only supposed to be there until Wednesday lunchtime.

When I looked ahead to another day in transit, I realised it made no sense to continue.... I just wouldn't get any value from the conference now.  I'd be a zombie all day on Tuesday and then it would be time to go home again on Wednesday.

What a complete waste of time (and money) and a big disappointment.... the conference I'm missing out on is one of IBM's best.

I am not happy.

Gatwick Misery

I think this extract from Virgin's "Flight Tracker" page says it all:

FLIGHT INFORMATION

Flight number: VS 015

Departure date: 06 Apr 2008

Route: London (LGW) to Orlando (MCO)

Scheduled departure time: 06 Apr 12:45

Estimated departure time: 06 Apr 19:45

Scheduled arrival time: 06 Apr 16:55

Estimated arrival time: 06 Apr 23:37

 

Were it not for the fact that I am committed to present at this conference, I think I'd probably cancel my reservation and go home.

[UPDATE 17:09.... A small crumb of comfort.  I queued up at the information desk and begged to be upgraded. 10,000 miles lighter, I'm now in one of the best seats in Premium Economy (75H). Not Upper Class but better than nothing!]

DLR Goody Bag

I returned home from Vienna this evening and amongst my mail was a bag with a TfL roundel on the franking strip. What could it be?!

Imagine my delight when I opened it to find:

• Three DLR wristwatches
• Two DLR "new look" carriage cardboard models with jelly beans inside!
• Three copies of "Celebrating 20 years" [of the DLR]
• Three copies of the "Introducing the new DLR Langdon Park station" CD Rom.

Fantastic!

Many thanks to David Sanders at DLR and The Londonist for tipping me off.

Getting from the DLR to the District Line at Bank

So, those wacky pranksters at TfL have decided that getting from the DLR to the District Line at Bank is an unnecessary luxury in these times of austerity. Which is, presumably, why they've decided to ban such things for a year.

The proposed alternatives are laughable:

Travel from Limehouse to Canning Town to pick up the Jubilee?  Go to Mile End to get the District? Quite apart from how far I'd have to go out of my way, are they really suggesting I pay to enter zone 3 in order to get from zone 2 to zone 1?

The most obvious route for me would be simply to leave Bank and walk down to Cannon Street.

Except... that would be two journeys.

So I wrote to them.

It turns out that they're going to make an exception and charge people who leave at Bank and re-enter at Cannon Street within thirty minutes as if they'd only done one journey.

I'm almost tempted deliberately walk really slowly and get a coffee to make the most of my hard-fought-for new rights.

Here's the answer they sent:

Dear Mr Brown

Thanks for your email about pay as you go charges during the current interchange arrangements at Bank.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience these arrangements will cause.

I can confirm that you will be able to touch out at Bank and touch in at Cannon Street without being charged for two journeys. This will be considered as a continuous journey providing you do so within a period of 30 minutes.

I hope this clarifies the position for you and please contact me again if I can be of any help in the future.

Kind regards

[Name removed]

Customer Service Advisor
Central Line

Of course, "London Connections" have a nice diagram that suggests some routes might be open.... (don;t tell anyone though...)