Smoking On The Tube

Whilst travelling on the tube this afternoon (Northern line from Angel to Kentish Town), a smelly tramp hopped onto our carriage with a can of special brew. I could see everyone around me silently groan at the sight (and smell). It got worse, though, as the tramp proceeded to light up a cigarette – the cardinal sin of travelling on the Underground.

Unexpectedly, two passengers broke with general tube tradition, and confronted the tramp. ‘Stub it out or get off’, they demanded, holding the train at the station until the tramp complied with either critera. After a couple of minutes of expletives, the tramp stubbed out his fag and we got on with our journey. Everyone else in the carriage smiled thanks at the two brave passengers. All praise to them for the minor victory…

In other tube news, I got stopped by a ticket inspector for using my girlfriend’s PrePay Oystercard. Apparently, once an Oystercard is registered to an individual and paired with a photocard, the card becomes non-transferable. This seemed odd, but the friendly inspector explained that a plain PrePay card was like cash, which could be transferred, but was gone if you lost it, but the money on a registered card could be reclaimed if lost or stolen. So, now I know… (thankfully, he let me off)