Many of us have been there – you’ve just seen your favourite artist at Wembley Stadium, your voice is hoarse from screaming along to their biggest hits, your bank account is lighter thanks to the extortionate bar prices, and if that wasn’t bad enough, now you’ve got to get home.
That was me last night (Thursday, July 3), trying to leave Wembley Stadium after Lana del Rey’s first of two dates there this week (the second being tonight on Friday, July 4). The show was absolutely spellbinding – a star I’ve followed since my early teens. But I’m older and wiser now, and 8 hours of sleep was calling.
As thousands poured out of the stadium some fans made a break for it, running towards Wembley Park station in an attempt to get ahead of the crowds to jump on the Tube. At this point I had resigned myself to the fact I was in for a long journey home, until my friend said she’d seen a nifty trick on TikTok that we should try.
The trick in question involves boarding a train travelling in the opposite direction Northbound, alighting at the next stop, then boarding a much less busy train back in the correct direction before it reaches Wembley, guaranteeing yourself a seat on the service.
We clearly weren’t the only people with this idea, but judging by the number of people stood on our platform compared to the much busier Southbound platform, I trusted that it just might work.
We boarded the Northbound Jubilee line service towards Stanmore, alighting one stop on at Kingsbury. There, we crossed over to the Southbound platform and waited for the next service. To my delight, it rolled up 4 minutes later completely empty.
I must admit I let a very slight smug smile spread across my face as we arrived back at the rammed Wembley Park station, watching as fellow gig-goers crammed into the remaining spaces.
In total, the manoeuvre probably added little more than 10 minutes to our journey – which likely pales in comparison to how long we’d have waited to board at the Southbound Wembley Park platform. In my opinion, the slight detour is more than worth it to guarantee a seat on the Tube, particularly if you are travelling a long way across the city.
This trick won’t just work at Wembley Park – if boarding at Wembley Central, Northbound trains towards Watford Junction will in theory be quieter than Southbound trains heading for central London too, so you could try the same trick there by alighting at North Wembley or South Kenton.
Thank you, TikTok Gods, for helping me escape Wembley Stadium – but let’s keep this secret between us from now on.
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