So I get up early. I get out of the house early. I get to the station early.
But do I get to work early? No.
Instead I waste half an hour of my life waiting at the station as it gradually fills up with more and more people while the inane recording tells me that a train is due in one minute which never turns up.
I hate train delays. But even more than delays I hate it when they don't tell you what's going on. Some of the staff need a course in customer care, and for someone to tell them that even if all you can say is "I have no idea what's going on. I'm trying to find out for you. I'm really, really sorry", it's a million times better than hiding up your own arse and hoping it will all go away.
I'm not someone who complains for the sake of it. I appreciate that our train system is under-staffed, under-funded and built on a creaky old infrastructure back when the tube was seen as a revolution in technology. Personally, I don't know what they can do to improve the system (although surely someone's figured out that the public-private partnership hasn't exactly worked out as hoped).
I can't think of any quick-fix solutions, but I do know what isn't going to help us. One of the train companies is considering taking out seats to shovel more bodies onto the trains. As someone who faints on trains with an alarming frequency, this is NOT, repeat NOT, a solution. Often the only thing that gets me through long journeys is staring longingly at the seats trying to guess who's getting off at which stop.
It's also not fair to charge us yet more for travelling during the rush hour. It's not our fault that we work for a living. Fair enough, all tourists should be superglued to their hotel rooms until at least half nine (too slow and too stupid to travel in rush hour) but we stalwart commuters should be rewarded not punished for wanting to do a day's honest work.
I don't mind not having a car. I normally like using the bus or the tube. But today I was not in a good mood as I marched through Liverpool Street with my fists clenched itching for a fight. That's the problem with commuting - it turns you into a completely different person.
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3 comments:
Does it? I wonder. Perhaps it brings out the real person...
Meg,
I COMPLETELY understand!!! I had an awful journey Wednesday too - took me twice as long to get to work as usual because they closed Leyton station. This was bad enough but obviously it had a knock on effect on all the buses so there were people EVERYWHERE in Leyton that the pavement could not hold us all and we were spilling onto the road. By the time I managed to fight my way onto a bus and it trawled through traffic to Stratford it was about an hour after I'd left home!!! You know what got me really annoyed though, it was the STUPID people that invaded the already overpacked bus at the stop outside Stratford library. It's in the middle of rush hour and 2 mums with pushchairs and 2 old ladies with shopping trollies think they have a right to get on the bus all at once!!! They caused gridlock on the lower deck!!! I'm sorry, maybe I'm being harsh here, but does it really make sense for these people to get on public transport at this time in the day? The bus driver refused to move the bus till they sorted themselves out and I'd had enough so I just got off the bus and walked the rest of the way. By the time I got to Stratford I was fuming and I felt like swearing and shouting at the two people who stopped casually in front of me with their suitcases as I tried to pass through the barriers!!! It really is times like these that turn civilised people into monsters!!! Thing is all this would be so much better to deal with if it wasn't so bloody hot at the moment!!! Still we should be grateful Meg we weren't unfortunate enough to be on any of those trains that got stuck in tunnels recently!!!!
Wow I feel so much better now I have that out of my system - hope you don't mind me abusing your blog in this way. I felt like writing one myself Wednesday but was too exhausted after work to be bothered!!
Maybe it does, but i think i like the new grrrr-er you!
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