Sliding doors

This morning was one of those times when the public transport system decides to play a game with us.

The 8.04am train (arrived Brockley 8.06, natch) broke down just outside New Cross Gate and limped in to the station, where upon we were notified that some men would be along to fix it “shortly”.

At times like this, commuters are faced with a complex risk-reward matrix – a range of options, with uncertain outcomes.

So, we could stay on the train and hope it got fixed quickly, make our way to the other platform to try and squeeze on the next London Bridge-bound service, catch the train back the other way to get a later service from Brockley, catch a bus, or walk to New Cross station and get a train from there.

It’s all very exciting.

In the end, we took the last of those options and were delayed only by a total of 20 minutes.

We reckon we did the right thing and patted ourselves on the back when we pulled in to London Bridge but ordinarily, we have no way of knowing whether the people who took other options did better.

Thanks to the power of Brockley Central, we now have a chance to find out how the other options worked out for people.

So, were you on that train? If you were, what did you do and how much were you delayed? Did Brockley Central manage to beat the system?