Monday 1st February, 2010

Made the 8.16 semi fast this morning, together with a good mate who took pity and stopped to give me a lift to the station.

Uneventful journey until we reached St Pancras. No. Not that St Pancras. We’d pulled out of there with no issues but then ground to a halt in the old Thameslink station. Why have we stopped here? Driver error, we thought. Old habits die hard.

Turns out that a train had broken down ahead of us, and the driver, knowing we might be waiting a while, told us he thought we might prefer to be stopped in the old station rather than in a tunnel. Why? Frankly the darkness would have been preferable. It always was a godawful, festering pit, and it hasn’t been made any better by the layers of pigeon s**t that have accumulated, despite the strategically placed spikes. Perhaps it was a tactical move from FCC to remind us just how lucky we are to have the nice new station. What next? Is he going to open the doors and invite us to take a stroll along the platform for old times sake?

Fortunately not. As we sat there, waiting, it suddenly dawned on us. It has long been a mystery how the graffiti artists get down there to work their magic, but could our driver be the secret artist. He sees his chance, spotting a gap in the schedule, pulls up in the station and dives out with his spray cans? We were soon on our way again.

Why not give them a free reign down there? Much better to have some colourful, inventive decoration to look at than layers of detritus and grime.