High speed bits versus total journey time

25 August 2010

Victoria line up to King’s Cross, then what feels like a 48,000 mile walk up to the National Rail station round and round – it’s a long way! Makes you realise how places like King’s Cross are becoming mega interchanges and the problem of getting people up from the deep tube lines is immense.

But it also makes you think about the total journey time – you may shave 10 minutes off a journey to Birmingham but if it takes you 10 minutes longer to get from the tube, you are no better off.

This is the same for all journeys. My cycle to work takes the same time as getting through our new offices’ fiendishly efficient security, right to the end of the underground car park where planners always stick the bikes and then the walk back. It’s better than travelling by tube, but it is amazing how the different legs of journeys add up – I remember reading somewhere it was not the length of journeys that were stressful, but the number of times you had to change which has a direct link with stress.