Tales

The dot matrix

Northern line platform at Leicester Square. Man and woman in their 20s, smart casual, wandering towards me while looking up at the "dot matrix" (as TfL staff are prone to calling it). It's the display that says when the next train is coming.

"5 minutes..." The man says with a prolonged, agitated grimace.

London: the only place where you can be annoyed at a train being further than 2 minutes away.

The only thing better than this is when you see someone get massively irate at missing a train... when there is another one two minutes behind it. 

It's all relative though. If you're going on a 10-minute journey, is it alright to get annoyed about a 2-minute delay? Potentially yes. Yes.