Tube Congestion

I never really understood the word crowded until I got to London.  I have never been a particularly "touchy feely" type person, but in the tube, during rush hour, you have no choice but to become extremely comfortable touching those around you.

This morning, I was running about fifteen minutes off schedule and consequently got onto the train platform at about 8:15 rather than 8:00.  Now I'm not sure whether that tiny quarter of an hour is what made the congestion this morning particularly bad, or if there were some darker forces at work, but trying to get on a train this morning was total bedlam.  There were already probably about fifty people waiting on the platform for the next train, which is never a good sign.  Then as the train pulls in, it is clear that there is not room for two more people per car, let alone the fifteen that are trying to shove in.

Now when I say that there was not room in the car, I literally mean that bodies were occupying every inch of free space, standing or sitting.  People are pressed against one another, the windows are fogged over from the body heat, and there is an almost indescribable human made humidity lingering in the air.

                                                                               

I waited there as three trains came and left, not able to get even close to getting on one myself.  In a final effort to make it to school I even tried to take another line, that though out of the way, might have gotten me there...eventually.  I squeezed myself into a small gap between two business men on the first train that pulled up, but at the first stop the train was experiencing "severe delays" and I opted to hop out, and take the train in the opposite direction right back home.  I convinced myself that it just wasn't worth it, that I could miss one class, and since I gave it my best effort, I really felt no guilt about my decision. 

So, about thirty minutes after I stepped into the station, I was back in the exact same spot again, and was about to head back to my apartment when I got this tiny tugging feeling in my stomach.  I was already here, I was already up, and even if I was going to be late I had stuff to do at the student center anyway, so... I decided to try one more time.  I went back down the stairs to the Piccadilly line towards Cockfosters, and like the last time I was there there were far too many people trying to fit in far too little space.

But just a little way down the platform I saw one door that didn't have people queueing up behind it and I also saw a Tera sized spot on the inside of the car.  I sprinted down the platform, squeezed myself into the spot with amazing precision, and the doors closed almost immediately behind me.  I rode the rest of the journey to school, cramped, and hot, but happy to be on the train.  I got to school only about ten minutes late, and convinced that it was a genuine miracle that I had arrived.

Now I am about 99% certain of two things.  One, that even if the tube is crazy, and congested, it also gets you places in a very reasonable amount of time, and two, that I am quite positive that God himself saved me a spot on the tube this morning.