The Central Line is Broken.

I know try and look surprised.

Although I believe it has just re-opened but is operating with severe delays London Underground's (LU) "Central Line" was closed between "Liverpool Street" and "Leytonstone" due to a signal/track failure near "Bethnal Green" throughout the morning rush-hour on the busiest day of the Olympic games so far. I am still trying to work out if this was the same signal/track failure that closed the line between "Hainult" and "Straford" at the Olympic park last night.

Now this could have been faked to annoy all the commuters including my mother and her partner from who use the "Central Line" from "Epping" all the way down the line to "Liverpool Street" to get to work in the morning. It could also have been faked in order to disrupt travel from "Liverpool Street" to the Olympic station "Stratford" to discourage Olympic visitors from using the "Central Line." However I think the most obvious answer is probably the correct one and one LU's oldest and busiest lines has simply broken. This highlights the problem with operating an underground railway because there is only one track and if that track breaks not only can you not divert trains around it you can not bring in heavy lifting gear like cranes to replace the broken part. Therefore repairing any fault takes a long time and causes significant disruption. So please try and be patient and normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. The first regular commuter to say; "But this is normal service." will be taken outside and shot, possibly in front of their families.

My advice to Olympic visitors remains the same though; Avoid the "Central Line" and instead take the "District," "Jubilee" or "Hammersmith & City" lines to "West Ham" and then walk to the Olympic park.

09:10 on 3/8/12.