Every year the bills go up. It's only the start of the year and already I've just had to fork out just over two hundred pounds on car tax. I also catch the train into work and back which has risen by stupid percent and the cost of food, fuel, and living in general is rocketing skywards!
This morning as I arrived at the station after having done my morning commute on not one, but two crowded and normally delayed trains, a message came over the tannoy that part of the station had been closed off due to over crowding. This meant that my short walk through the station of less than 100 metres turned into the quick walk / semi run of nearly five times that amount round the block just to get to the point of where I would normally be in the first place. Several years ago, I used to work for a company 10 miles from my home. No worries, 20 minutes in the car, job done! Now I live in a different part of the country and the office is only eight miles from home, yet my journey to work now involves a 20 minute brisk walk to the station, 10 minutes on the platform, a first train journey for 15 minutes, another wait on the platform for around 5 minutes (if its on time) then a second train for another 15 minutes followed by a further 15 minutes walk to work from the station. Total travelling time - 80 minutes - or in other words, 1 hour 20 twice a day five days a week.
And yet, millions of people all over the country do this similar kind of journey every day dealing with delays and problems yet continue to carry on payhing the transport companies humongous amounts of our hard earned cash for the privilage.
Why do we all put up with it? Why are we forced to pay these ridiculous hikes in prices for the same if not sometimes worse level of service you had before. The atonal bland voice of the robot coming through the station loudspeaker saying that the train company you are travelling with apologises for the delay. Its repetition stuck like an old fashioned record, continually going around and around in an ever decreasing loop. Therefore my question is this. Who is the actual person from the transport company, sorry? We hear from the automated robot that ***Insert name of travel company here*** apologises for the delay but the fat cat hiding behind his or her desk is probably looking down on the rest of us poor suckers saying thanks for your cash, it will go rather well on the company outing this year. Are you really sorry or are you just saying so to pacify us all?
Believe it or not, if I use my car it would actually be worse. Sure, I won't be forced into sniffing my fellow commuters arm pit, or sit opposite the drunk who's very loud shouting of constant swear words into his phone with both eyes closed (as happened tonight) will not be there. But due to the sheer volume of traffic there is on the roads I'll be lucky if I get out of second gear! The engine will overheat and I'll end up stranded on the side of the road with a billowing gush of steam rising up out of the radiator. No doubt one day things will change for the better and I have to remain positive and focussed that my daily journey will one day be stress free. I would just like it however if the fat cats in the companies who we all have to pay actually did the same level of travelling as we do. Join the ranks of the people and see for yourself where your service is going. I wonder then if they did, how much of an "improvement" we will all actually see.
Wingwalker.
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