Good Service of the Week Award - what a surprise

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I am the harshest critic I know of ineptitude, idiocy, and, to borrow a glorious term from colleague Ann Widdecombe, nincompoopery.

I dish out my fury at the merest hint of bad service, and make no secret of the fact nothing drives me more mad than stupidity in return for my hard-earned cash.

But I also like to think that as well as handing out criticism, I can give credit where credit is due.

That is the reason I introduced the balancing act to my Crap Service of the Week Award, the Good Service of the Week Award.

Now here comes the real surprise, and it comes in the form of today’s  Good Service Award.

Wait for it ....  the recipient is ..... Trransport for London (TfL).

I know, I know, I can hardly believe it myself.

You must think I have taken a turn towards lunacy, officially fallen off my rocker, lost control of my faculties.

I haven’t.

As I said, credit where it’s due, and this week I think TfL have earned themselves a pat on the back.

I have slagged them of mercilessly in the run up to the  Olympics, and it has to be said they deserved it - the endless delays, cancellations, hold ups and generally goofy service.

But this week, they have really seemed to clean up their act and coped admirably now we are in the full throws of the London 2012 Olympics.

Ok, the trains have not been as loaded as was expected, but that does not detract from the fact TfL has laid on an almost faultless service.


For the purposes of this entry I am going to ignore the hour-long delays on the Central Line this morning due to a signal failure because they had been doing so well up until then.

Stations have been well-staffed by operators in orange tabards, the website is up to date with and hold ups or route changes/ station closures.

And they have emailed customers every day to inform of likely busy stations, best routes, ones to avoid and guidance on how to survive the Olympic fortnight.

I am actually quite impressed, and have been able to travel to and from work with ease, despite preparing myself for the journey from Hell.

So well done TfL, keep it up, and to avoid future criticism, let’s have this every day of the year, not just during the Olympics.



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