Don’t get me wrong, I wholly approve of public transport. This was just not my day…
I’ve got a meeting at Kolsås at 9:00 – about an hour later than the time I’m normally at work – which really should not present a problem, right?
Well, since I was heading for Arvika (Hi, Linda!) after work, I got the tram down to the railway station. I put my luggage in left luggage and headed for the subway. When I get to the platform, there’s a train there and on the board it says Kolsås. So I get on the train, a bit dubious, as the boards do not always tell the strict truth, but I figure I can always change… Well, I’m right, the train stops at Stortinget and goes no further. So I get off and jump on the next train, hoping this might be the advertised Kolsås line. It isn’t. I get off at Majorstuen. The train doesn’t leave. It just sits there, randomly opening and shutting doors. This is the point where I send a text message to the people I’m supposed to be meeting with to say I might be a mite late… The train leaves. Another train comes and leaves. A Kolsås line arrives. I figure I might as well get on… We get to Smestad. Announcement on the speakers to the effect that there’s a power failure on the Kolsås line further down, everyone has to get off, buses have been requested. So we all file off and stand around like lemons at the bus stop. A taxi passes, and I flag it down. I finally arrive (once the taxi driver has gotten lost once) at Kolsås, only 20 minutes late. In the guard they are four people, twice as many as normally, they spend three times the time they normally do to let me in (I’m left in the freaking cold for 15 minutes while they figure out which card to give me!!!)
That was the morning. Considering I needed to get the train to Arvika in the afternooon, I was a bit apprehensive. Surely it would not be a flawless experience?
I caught the train, I was at the platform well before time… Just before Kongsvinger – a power failure for the signals… In this part of the country a lot of roads cross the train line with nothing but signals to indicate whether a train is coming or not. The train therefore had to move at snail speed. We rached Arvika after 2:30 hours rather than the scheduled 1:45.
Not my day for public transport. Obviously.
Voice on the stereo: Someone from the Swedish Fame Academy