bcarmicle
Member
- Joined
- 11 May 2018
- Messages
- 164
I live in London, and had cause the other day to take a contra-peak flow journey, i.e. a train out of Waterloo at about 8 AM and arriving back into Waterloo at about 6 PM. The AM train was about half-full from Clapham Junction, i.e. had you been one of the last ones on at Clapham Junction, you would almost certainly have had to sit next to a stranger; the PM train was maybe 3/4 seating capacity.
In some sense, this is a bit surprising; although London is a huge city and some number of people will have cause to make the contra-peak journey either reguarly or as a one-off (as I did), it was nonetheless more than I expected (especially in the morning) given that the number of trains into WAT must surely be approximately the number of trains out of WAT, and unless it was just my train that was unusually busy, there must have been one person leaving London for every three or four arriving.
I suppose I'm curious whether this busyness is:
(a) totally expected and contra-flow is not as quiet as I imagined
(b) usual for London but not all major cities
(c) usual for Waterloo but not other London termini
(d) entirely unusual and peculiar to my specific train
In some sense, this is a bit surprising; although London is a huge city and some number of people will have cause to make the contra-peak journey either reguarly or as a one-off (as I did), it was nonetheless more than I expected (especially in the morning) given that the number of trains into WAT must surely be approximately the number of trains out of WAT, and unless it was just my train that was unusually busy, there must have been one person leaving London for every three or four arriving.
I suppose I'm curious whether this busyness is:
(a) totally expected and contra-flow is not as quiet as I imagined
(b) usual for London but not all major cities
(c) usual for Waterloo but not other London termini
(d) entirely unusual and peculiar to my specific train