So am just back from Christmas in London (yes, again) and want to report on a weirdness I discovered with Transport for London’s online trip planner.
This year I decided that bus only would be the way to go (where possible) and so I got very familiar with TFL’s trip planner feature. It mostly works very, very well, and made it super easy to get around without using the Tube much. We saw a LOT more of neighborhoods we would never have seen if we’d zipped by underground on the Tube, which was really cool.
That said… a warning. THE TRIP PLANNER IS SOMETIMES GOOFY.
Our flight home left Gatwick at 9:45am, which I knew would be a bit of a hassle given when the Tube generally starts running in the morning. We stayed in Maida Vale this year. The first train to leave the Maida Vale station is ~5:42am. Best case scenario using the Tube, then, meant that we’d be at Gatwick by 7:00am at the earliest. That made my husband VERY nervous, so I was just about to book a minicab when it occurred to me to check the TFL trip planner and see if there was an earlier bus.
And lo! There was an earlier bus! We could pick up the 187 at 5:04am, from the Elgin Avenue stop just a scant block from the flat. We’d change for the Tube and take the Jubilee Line to the Victoria Line, getting to Victoria Station enough before 6:00am that we could comfortably be at Gatwick by 6:30am. This seemed perfect!
I wrote down the directions and we toddled off to bed. Next morning dawned, and we were at the bus stop at 4:55am (just in case). The bus hove into view at precisely 5:05 and we boarded. There were a few other folks with suitcases, which always looks promising.
I had the directions in hand, and read off the stops as we went. (Side note: it was cold and drizzly, and I couldn’t pick up any free wifi on my phone – probably a side effect of not being close to anything big, corporate, or touristy.)
It was only 7 stops to the transfer point, which TFL’s trip planner listed as the Circus Road/Welllington Road stop. At Grove End Road, the prior stop, we stood up, gathered our belongings, and prepared to step off into the cold rain. Luckily, something tingled my Spidey Sense as the bus pulled up to the stop. All around us were nice apartment buildings, and rain, and glistening sidewalks – but not a Tube station in sight.
So on impulse I asked the driver, who replied, “Oh no, ma’am! The Tube is next stop – at St. John’s Wood Station!”
Yep. The Tube was at the next stop. It wasn’t a few block walk from the Circus Road/Welllington Road stop – it was at the next BUS stop, which TFL had failed to tell us. When you check the 187 route map, the St. John’s Wood station is there, and marked as a transfer point for the Jubilee line. It’s a plain as day when you look at it that way – but when you use the trip planner feature, well… you get told to get off one stop too early.
Normal day, no rain, a little later in the morning, and no plane to catch, that little glitch would be no big deal. But in the icy rain at oh-dark-thirty, with suitcases, no wifi, and no idea the direction to walk to get to the Tube, slavishly following the directions could have been a disaster.
So just a heads up. If you’ve really gotta be there fast and accurately – double check. And if your Spidey Sense tingles, always, always ask the driver.