Last train west

For reasons which are beyond my current understanding, the London Underground is mostly closed due to a strike by workers of Metronet. What matters most to me is that the fastest route between home and school has suddenly been severed, as service on the Central line has been entirely suspended. The walk is manageable, and there are buses, but the tube has been my first choice, and, to add insult to injury, the strike eats the last three days of my seven day travel pass, so I almost certainly failed to get my money's worth out of it.

The strike had been announced for 18:00 today, but less publicized was the fact that service reductions were to begin at 16:00. By the time our field trip returned to Liverpool Street to board the central line, the trains were few and far between. Minutes before our train arrived, we were told that it was to be the very last westbound train on the line, and was already quite full. Some of the group opted to walk, but I, anxious to meet up with Elizabeth, crammed into the already packed cars. This picture probably doesn't show anything too extraordinary, but the atmosphere of uncertainty and frustration, compounded by the unusual slowness of the train made the experience a pretty exciting one.