LONDON — We booked a taxi because the London Underground, the “Tube,” would be closed for a week by a strike. The rail workers’ union canceled the strike with just hours to spare. The union said it had secured a “significantly improved” but unspecified offer of a pay rise in the next round of negotiations. We canceled the taxi and took a crowded Tube across the center of London but were trapped underground because of “an earlier fire alarm” at another station.

The overground commuter train left on time but stopped 20 minutes short of its destination. There was supposed to be a crew change, but the replacement crew hadn’t turned up. We waited on a freezing platform in the dark, then squeezed into an already crowded local service, standing room only. Our 53-minute journey took 2 1/2 hours.