The daily grind

Hundreds of passengers were stranded underground for more than an hour on the southbound Jubilee Line in March. Maintenance firm Tube Lines said all power on board the train failed when it was near to Swiss Cottage station. Passengers got off the train by crossing to another in the tunnel. The line stayed closed for three hours after the breakdown.

This is the latest in a long line of breakdowns that have stranded passengers underground, sometimes for many hours in excessive heat without fresh air, refreshments or toilet facilities. On some occasions people have had to be taken to hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion etc. when they have eventually been rescued - particularly in the hot summer heat. Some underground train passenger evacuations have had to be along the track.

Experts have commented there could be a disaster on our hands if things on the tube don't improve. There have already been several major incidents including the train crashes at Chancery Lane and Camden Town. In February 2003 at least 32 people were injured in the Chancery Lane crash and in October 2003 at Camden seven people were hurt. It was just very good luck that no-one lost their life in either of these incidents. It was very bad luck for those that did receive injuries and for those commuters who had to endure months of disruption to their journeys as well as extra travelling time.

These events have been happening regularly for several years now with less serious breakdowns occurring on a daily basis. Sometimes both the journey to work and the journey home can be disrupted by lines closing temporarily. Some days two or three tube lines can come to a halt at the same time. The Northern Line may be nick-named "the misery line" but it is unfair to leave out the other lines that fail on a regular basis.

When a line closes, the commuter has to decide which way to gamble. Stay and hope the problem is fixed quickly or try and find an alternative way to your journey's end. This may well mean finding their way across London using busses, at the same time everyone else is using them. Sometimes this happens not just once a month, or even once a week, sometimes it's every day. The stress of dealing with this and the lengthening of travelling times means workers are enduring a massive burden on top of those they already have to just to earn a living at work.

This is what travelling to work and back home is like for millions of workers, members of the public and overseas visitors every single day of the week. Never sure when, or if, you'll get to your destination. Stress at work has been number one concern for workers for many years now. Londoners get the double whammy of stress on the way to and from work as well.

And the cause of all of this - massive under-investment in the tube infrastructure and maintenance programme for far too many years.