Want to offend a Londoner? Try jumping a queue

The Brits have had a tumultuous few years, but they remain the leaders in one particular virtue – and it’s something the rest of the world should emulate, writes UK correspondent Stephen Drill.

British people love to queue.

They are excellent at it, and if it was an Olympic sport they would probably be repeat gold medallists.

The orderly lines at concerts, football matches and railways stations are of constant amazement to me.

And while generalisations can be unfair, the capacity to queue fits with the foppish Hugh Grant-like characters of most English men, particularly those in London. (Please note, I’m not including Scottish people in this, I would probably get bashed.)

However, I’ve found out just how to turn the Hugh Grants into modern day versions of William Wallace’s Braveheart – get someone to cut in line.

Foppish Hugh Grant types … London is full of them, writes Stephen Drill.

I was waiting with hundreds, if not thousands, of people at Waterloo Station, one of London’s biggest, to transfer to the Waterloo and City line.

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This one stop line, known as the drain, links the main overground station to Bank station, the heart of London’s City financial district and one of its employment hubs.

Each morning it is jammed, with lines snaking around corners as people wait up to 10 minutes just to get on to the platform to then pretend to be baked beans in a can when they get on the Tube.

There was one chap (and it wasn’t me before you ask, this is not a ‘this happened to a friend of mine’ story) who thought he would sneak ahead about 80 metres in the line.

The reaction was swift.

This well dressed, polite, probably privately educated English gent leapt into action.

He moved the bloke on, loudly protesting that everyone had to wait their turn.

The line jumper tried to stand his ground, but it was getting heated. The tall man stepped in front of him and directed him again to the back of the line.

When the sneaky queue jumper tried to stand just a few metres away from him, the line patroller called him out again.

Peak hour at Waterloo Station. People everywhere, but almost all of them follow the unwritten rules of queuing.

For an argument before 9am it was all quite intense.

But it highlighted just how packed the London Tube remains and why they need the new Crossrail line that they have been building for the past decade when I first came to London for a stint on Fleet Street.

And while Sydney’s light rail has been delayed for opening until next year, the commuters of London have something in common with them.

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Crossrail, to be known as the Elizabeth Line, is now three years and $A4 billion over budget.

The new line would ease the Waterloo and City Line crush, but it will go on for at least another two years after builders couldn’t get their act together.

I can never work out if the building companies just over-promise to get the work or they are simply incompetent.

I’ll have time to think about it next time I’m waiting to get on that platform at Waterloo.

Stephen Drill is News Corp’s UK correspondent.

Originally published as Want to offend a Londoner? Try jumping a queue