The Piccadilly Line tube-train pulls into the station. Here it stops, as indeed it should — it's a train, after all. As the doors open, some passengers leave and some join. But the doors remain open, all goes quiet and there is no sign that any movement is likely to happen in the near future.
It's five minutes later and the train still resides in the same spot, in the same station. The doors have yet to close. And still there is no word whatsoever from the driver as to what the problem is.
More minutes tick away. Finally the tannoy crackles into gear. The train driver speaks at last. He says: "I'm sorry for the delay to your journey. We're being held in this station for the moment … I have absolutely no idea why."
A few minutes later the doors close and the train starts to move. The driver speaks over the tannoy system once again. He says: "There has just been an announcement made to say that there is a good service on the Piccadilly Line … read into that what you will."
At last, an honest train driver.
Thomas L. Blair is a sociologist and political blogger on the Chronicleworld 'for creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe'. His work is honoured in the British Library's archive of "social, historic and culturally significant web-based material from the UK domain". He won top prize in the blogging competition on The-Latest.
Sumantra Maitra is a freelance journalist from Mumbai, India. He is a correspondent for All Sports magazine, and a foreign affairs blogger for the Washington Examiner. He has written articles for news website Merinews.com and other regional publications. Sumantra runs a blog at DailyWorldWatch.wordpress.com. He provided exclusive eyewitness reports for The-Latest on the Mumbai bombings of 2008.
Brian Usher is photography consultant for The-Latest.Com. He is a highly experienced editorial and commercial photographer whose work has been published throughout the world, appearing in many well known magazines and newspapers. Brian has featured in several books and has been a writer for the Royal Photographic Society magazine.
Heidi Kingstone has spent time in Afghanistan reporting for a number of publications. Her work has appeared in the Financial Times, The Spectator, The Sunday Times and other international journals. She has also reported from places like Iraq, Rwanda, Lebanon, Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. Heidi is The-Latest's Editor at large.
latest comments