Anonymous Commuters

I commute to work daily. Today however is a little different as I'm heading to London for a meeting. I've caught a train an hour earlier than normal and it's packed.

As I stand wedged in a corner I realise that I spend an awful lot of my time with people I don't know. There's a woman to whom I gave the last seat, reading an A4 document with all the Important bits marked with yellow highlighter. There are two women drinking hot liquids from stainless steal flasks. Many of us are listening to our favourite sounds through headphones. Most are small in-ear ones, but 3 of us have larger over the ear types, myself included. I find they shut out the noise far better and allow for lower volumes to be used. Loonies tend to leave me be too.

There are various mobile phones, Blackberry's, iPhones and one iPad in a fetching shade of white. There are suit wearer, tie wearers and 2 wearer of jeans.



All of a sudden we arrive at our destination, London Bridge. I'm surprised at the lack of urgency displayed by my fellow commuters to get off the train. But once off it was on with the mad dash to the Tube. I did this journey for two years in the early 2000's and I don't miss it one bit. The Tube from London Bridge is a nightmare of delays and Sardines. Not a nice experience and I'm in no hurry to repeat it daily. Once in a while is plenty for me.

I caught the Jubilee Line to Canada Water expecting it to be fairly lightly loaded. How wrong I was. It was obvious that this section of the tube is now just as packed in the rush hour as every other section.

From at Canada Water I caught the recently reopened East London line. I actually designed the control & indication system that controls the signalling for this line, but this was my first trip on it. I am happy to report that my design worked perfectly well today 8-)




I was surprised that so many people could fit on these trains. I thought they would never stop getting of the thing. Eventually they did stop and the reason why so many could squeeze on became clear. Very few seats. Most of the area was designed to allow maximum people to stand. It seems to work quite well to.

I arrived early for my meeting, which was all over by 10:15 and then it was time for the return journey.

Regards
Chris
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Season Ticket Failure

Last Tuesday I renewed my annual railway season ticket. Because on the the state of our economy and the fact that the Westminster Muppet Show have loosened controls on the fares train operators can charge, my ticket has broken the £2000 barrier for the first time. This equates to a 7.7% increase from last year, which is more than 2% above inflation. I'd like to point out that my salary is extremely unlikely to keep pace.

Southern Trains have over the last couple of years been fitting automated ticket barriers and my home station received them early last year. This shouldn't be a problem if you have a valid ticket to insert into the machine. However, mine stopped operating the barriers in just over a month last year. This meant that everyday I had to queue up at the manual side barrier four times each day. Mostly this was fine, but on a couple of occasions the speed of the queue ment I missed my train.

I was so please when last Tuesday my new ticket let me through the barriers without any delay. Unfortunately I seem to have set a new record as this morning it failed to work. I made that just seven days of un-impeded travel. I have two choices, visit the ticket office & ask for a replacement or spend the next 12 months queuing up 4 times a day!

Regards
Chris
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Wot, no seat?

With the exception of about four years, I've been comuting to work by train twenty years. Over take time I've seen many changes and who can forget "The Wrong Type of Snow".

Today we have comfy new air conditioned trains, which are generally very reliable. But one thing that always remains constant is the lack of seats.

Since I started my new job in January I've been paying £190 a month to stand on a doorway. However, about a month or so ago things improved and most mornings since I've managed to sit. For some inexplicible reason this week is different and I've had to stand for three of the four journeys. Why? Could it be that all those new MPs at the "West Minster Muppet Show" are trying to make a good impression? If so I expect that they are traveling standard class, not wanting to have their expenses claims embarress them publicly. It didn't to worry the last batch!

If this is the case, hopefully they'll soon get bored of the House of Muppets and stay at home. That why I can rest my legs more often. This does of course asume that the impending public cuts doesn't remove the whole train from the route or worse, kill off my new job.

PS - Just to be clear, I do not work directly for the Govnt any more. I was privatised many years ago. However, my current employer is very heavily involved with the UKs infrustructure. So I still may feel the pain of cuts.

Regards
Chris
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It's Official - I'm an Idiot!

Last Thursday I attended a company induction course in a rather leafy corner of Surrey. It felt more like a College campus than a large company's headquarters. Generally I had a great day out and made some important new contacts. One very nice chap I met at lunch turned out to be a divisional director and the afternoons keynote speaker. The thing that struck me most was that everyone was very enthusiastic about working for this great corperation. I have to agree too. I've felt the love since day one and I'm extremely please to be working with such enthusiastic people. It's definately starting to rub off on me.

After all the excitment and corperate gifts I was piled high with, I caught the train home. I had to change at Clapham Junction, but there was no direct train home. I decided the best plan was to change at Gatwick Airport. I left the train with my large bag of goodies, decided which platform I needed next and set off. Just as I got onto the down escalator to the next platform, released that my right shoulder was lighter than normal. I'd left my briefcase on the train.

AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!

I instantly turned and ran back the way I'd come. Very quickly it dawned on me that I was now trying to run up a down escalator and wasn't making a great deal of progress. Panic told me the answer was to run even faster! Not my best logic, but I did eventually make to the top. I arrived back on the other platform just in time to see the tail lights of the train leaving the end of the station!

I reported my loss to the Network Rail staff at Gatwick & Southern Railways Lost Property office. Both were really helpful and I can't fault them for the care they offered.

On Friday afternoon I had a call from a nice lady at Littlehampton staton ticket office. My bag had turned up safely and intact. On Saturday we had a nice family day out at the seaside & retrieved my bag.

Note to self: In future pay more attention when getting off of trains.

Regards
Chris
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