train or car

Well, after being firm supporter of the railways, but a pbuttenger seat petrol head, I finally gave in and pbutted my test 4 years ago. Why? Because I was sick of commuting and sharing armpit space, especially on the way home. If I'm going to breathe sweat and listen to music it will be my own choice. The person was an hours wait for an over crowded metro tram (monthy train-tram ticket pre-paid), then a 3 hour wait for a train to do a (at quickest) 45 minute local commute. The 3 hour delay was because of the weather and lines being down.

The station was manned by 1st Northwestern group staff, the single evening person on their internal heldesk was covering the whole northwest, and was employed by then Railtrack and over loaded, and the trains were run by Central and Transpennine, so nobody would consider themselves (including the PA to the station manager, and the duty platform manager) senior enough to arrange alternative transport, until they had spoken to the helpdesk. There was no customer facing helpdesk other than national rail enquiries, who had no idea that this was happening. This wasn't a small nothing station, this was Manchester Piccadilly, the main and flagship station for the city, and was between 6 and 9 PM, not in the small hours of the morning.

That evening, I dug out my provisional license, and the next day I phone round driving schools.

I had to suffer the trains a couple of months after that, but now I only ever use the train off peak, and on long runs, were possible pay a few quid extra for 1st clbutt. Although sometimes, veal crate is so packed they have to allow the unwashed in at no extra charge, tell you they will hand out compensation forms, then disappear. -- Carl Robson