Thursday, March 30, 2006

A train, Angelina, and Me

Now I'd say that I'm fairly upbeat about the state of our train services. Certainly, the carriages are more comfortable than the ones I remember as a teenager. Not so long ago- let's round it up to a decade or so. I depend on the railways to get me to business appointments several times a week, and it's saying something that I abandon the car to do so. Therefore, when I have a bad experience like today, I try and be sympathetic. For example, a delay in bringing a ramp to our carriage at one station to let a wheelchair user alight, swallowed up to 10 commuter minutes (equivalent to half a Sunday hour).

But basically, if the idea of standing (with nothing in particular to even lean on other than content, but intolerant, seat dwellers) for a good hour* appeals to you, then I can recommend dropping into your local travel agent and booking yourself onto the 1635 from Waterloo to Weymouth, Mon-Fri. I dare say you can do it on the interweb these days. I dread to think what the 1705, 1720 and 1735 are like.

The one redeeming fact was that I was able to watch the best part of Mr and Mrs Smith over someone's shoulder on their laptop- albeit without sound. I've seen the film before so the dialogue wasn't particularly important. As a side note, it was interesting to be able to see on how good an actor Mr Pitt can be.

*For the exact duration of my stand, find out when Angelina Jolie's character (Jane?) fires the shot gun through the wall at her husband from the stairs. You won't be reaching to dial for Norris McWhirter but to put this into perspective I booked flights to Carcassonne, France for less than today's return to London. No matter what you say about the lo cost airline in question, I figure I'm due a seat. I might land at the wrong aerodrome down the road, but I'll have a seat.

And another thing. I always considered using the train to be the green thing to do. It seems that it might not be all that simple. More later...

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