This warrants a note for posterity. So the Central line was screwed at rush hour this evening and I wanted to go from Bank to Oxford Street.

Bank tube was jammed (severe delays, usual mumble), so I re-surfaced and went to the nearest bus-stop on King William Street. Looked at the sign and there was a TfL info line (0207 code as well), so I called it expecting to be on hold and/or not get through to anyone anytime soon. Pressed ‘option 2’ and was put through to somebody straight away, who spoke perfect geezer English.

“Hi, which buses go from Bank to Oxford Street?”

“Hold on a sec… [5 seconds]… get the number 8 or 25 on Poultry mate.”

“Cheers.” </click>

2 minutes later I was on the bus, still pretty surprised that somehow this process seemed unnaturally efficient for London. If you use public transport every day in London, you’ll understand.

Fair enough, it’s a simple bus route, 20 mins in a fairly straight line east to west… but still.