My understanding is that a Piccadilly Line train failed at Piccadilly Circus, causing major delays to the line while the train was moved to sidings. This led to severe congestion/overcrowding at Finsbury Park, especially on the northbound platforms between the Victoria and Piccadilly lines. As a result the Victoria line was non-stopping at Finsbury Park and the station was partially evacuated for safety reasons.
Our records show the station was closed for twenty-four minutes. BTP were on the scene to assist station staff and to give passengers help with alternative travel arrangements where possible.
In case anyone's not aware, if you get off at H&I trot across the platform you can get onto the overland to Finsbury Park almost seamlessly (if they tell you that Fin Fin is closed before that of course).
I encountered this trouble last night trying to get into Central London for a gig. I love the travel options at Finsbury Park - hopped on a train to King's Cross and barely delayed.
Have to say, the BTP chap at the Station Place entrance was very helpful and doing a fine job in handling disorientated passengers.
Forget about swift journeys into town on the 19 or 4 buses.
They are on a diversion via Manor House and Green Lanes, adding at least 20 mins to journeys in the mornings. This is due to some bunch of bandits closing a tiny part of the road to dig something up. Of course they aren't working outside of the minimum hours so it looks like it will be going on for a while.
@tosscat: thanks for the tip - don't know why didn't I think of that myself.
I got off the Victoria line at Kings Cross and took a train from there, but that's a much longer walk to interchange and the trains from Kings Cross are much less frequent. I should have done exactly as you suggest.
@miss annie I think the roadworks are part of the Thames Water pipe replacement work. If you've been on the 19 or 4 recently, you should have noticed them slowly working their way down from Blackstock road.
Depending on where they are, they can be a right pain in the arse eg. at a junction. However, I have to say, they making progress at a pretty impressive rate and the quality of their resurfacing is much better than the council pot-hole filler cowboys.
The congestion they're causing at the moment is making the BBC morning news. If you're on a bike though, its not a problem. In fact avoiding traffic nightmares rather makes cycling in the pouring rain all the more worth it.
It wasn't quite so bad when they were digging for victory and just had the traffic lights out to alternate the north and southbound flow. Now that the road is actually completely closed one way and all the southbound buses are on the diversion it's really blooming annoying. I use the 19 and 4 every day for work and it's driving me nuts.
How do other countries manage to get people to work on this sort of thing at weekends and at night?
Hmm, they told us that the train was stopping to pick up passengers only and we weren't allowed to get off due to overcrowding (and should go to Manor House and take a train back).
Didn't look that bad to me - we all ignored the announcement and got off anyway.
Comments
Our records show the station was closed for twenty-four minutes. BTP were on the scene to assist station staff and to give passengers help with alternative travel arrangements where possible.
Have to say, the BTP chap at the Station Place entrance was very helpful and doing a fine job in handling disorientated passengers.