I retire in about a years time. I swear that then, I will never ever get on another train as long as I live!
I travel into the city every day with the rest of the herd. I am amazed at the sheer uncaring attitude of others in public places to those that share their space for the journey.
If you use the train into Liverpool Street and go through Ilford, Seven Kings etc, has anyone else seen the guy slouched in his seat, wide screen lap top computer on his ...well....lap? He was watching a DVD at full belt volume with no earphones on? Obviously, this was in competition with the 16 or so telephone rings or message alerts every minute or so. The one I hate especially is the morse code alert at full ear splitting volume. Then there is the girl picking at her eye lashes with her tweezers and smearing cakey stuff all over her face and eyes. Darling, you need to get up way earlier!
I really, really, really want to travel to work, cocooned in my own private world in my own comfortable and virtually silent, gas guzzling, global warming, tree harming....other passenger free motor car.
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I used to use the same line about 20 years ago and I have to admit, I don't look back with a tear in my eye...also I've no doubt it's worse now.
That's what I like about working form home...biggest problem in the morning is keeping out of everyone else's way while they go through the bathroom... :-)
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You know, people still do all these things when they commute by car, but the difference is they are doing it while in "control" of a car at 75+mph with your life in their hands...
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You know, people still do all these things when they commute by car,
Like watching a DVD? Wow....
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Like watching a DVD? Wow....
Why not? Is it any more of a problem than looking in a mirror to apply makeup?
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I can see why you can't wait to wave goodbye to the train, but I seem to have done the complete opposite.
I used to commute to Uni by a mix of entirely car or parking and riding at the nearest Metro interchange. Although using the car enabled me to drive (something which I usually enjoy), listen to my own music in private and adjust the atmosphere to entirely what I wanted, it was all becoming a bit of a chore.
So after a short while, I never drove all the way to university, instead, just parking and riding. This was great, as the Tyne and Wear Metro system is nice to use, being clean, efficient, reliable and dropping me just yards from the campus. However, in order to use the system, I still had to drive the manic rush hour, as the nearest station is 20 minutes away.
Now, I use the bus, entirely. This cut out having to use the car in rush hour and saves me loads of money (and stress). It used to cost about £35 to commute 5 days a week, but using the bus only cost £18 for 7 days unlimited use. With buses coming through my estate every 20 minutes, with journey times of about an hour, its quite convenient.
If I lived near the Metro train lines, i would use it all the time, but hey, you can't have everything! Plus, life?s not as manic up here as it is down there, if you know what I mean ;-)
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In the case of long-term commuters, I can't blame them if they never want to go on a train again. When I retire I don't suppose I'll ever want to drive the route I take to work again!
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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Tyne and Wear Metro system is nice to use
I find it terrible
south east trains and london tube are preferable every time, and i know how bad they can be
the metro system doesnt do a much better job than the buses did before and do still now, the newcastle/sunderland stretch was much better served by the old train service which now doesnt stop at intermediate stops
total and utter waste of public money
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I don?t miss taking the train every day to work ... never wish to return to it. 20 minute car journey door to door but it took 1 ½ hours on the train. Not to mention the fact that you had to stand the whole time in a filthy, stuffy environment you had to share with drunks, junkies and gangs of ill mannered youths. The 1 ½ hour journey would take a lot longer on a regular basis due to the fact that trains were cancelled at short notice for no known reason. The cost was also a great deal more than the cost of running my car - which I could also use to visit friends and family.
Only recently we considered taking the journey to Birmingham by train, we were in the process of selling our car and buying a new one. The car journey would cost us £10 in petrol and take us 2 hours max. On the other hand the train journey was to cost us £90 and take 4 hours, having to change trains 3 times with no guarantee the connecting train would still be there. Needless to say we made sure our car was ready by that date.
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20 minute car journey door to door but it took 1 ½ hours on the train.
Not to mention the fact that you had to standthe whole time in a filthy, stuffy environment you had to share with drunks, junkies and gangs of ill mannered youths.
And therein lie the 2 real issues that politicians will have to grapple with if they want to encourage us to use public transport.
Public transport often loses out even in terms of cost. A few years ago my wife and I needed to make a one way journey of about 150 miles. Since the journey was the next day, no APEX train fairs available. Cost of train worked out more than one-way car hire.
Don't envy the transport secretary.
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I'm lucky, I'm old enough to have a bus pass that also covers trains and ferries over a very wide area.
Arriva runs a 10 minute bus service passing close to my home to the town centre (about a mile and a quarter) so, unless the weather is absolutely awful, I forget the car and catch a bus. These are clean and well maintained.
Apart from social occasions or going out of town, the car is normally only used within the town for supermarket trips as the main shopping outlet we visit requires a journey across, rather than with, the bus routes; it's also easier than carrying numerous plastic bags full of food etc.
To be honest, if I used the bus pass even more extensivly I wouldn't be too miffed about my council tax or the annual increases; average cost of even a short trip to town is 95p each way and it's also a boon at night when going to check out on the quality of the Guinness.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Same here stuartli, my car now sits at home and is now more of a 'toy' than a tool and as the town bus runs along my street, I just hop on it with my weekly pass. It saves the guilt of 'short runs are doing no good' scenario
I find it terrible
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>>south east trains and london tube are preferable every time, and i know how bad they can be.
Sorry to hear your trip on the Metro was seemingly less than satisfactory. I have only used the London Underground a couple of times, and that was quite enough thank you. Slow, dirty but cheap.
>>the metro system doesnt do a much better job than the buses did before and do still now,
Well it depends what you mean by a 'better job'. The Metro was quicker than the buses it replaced and cut journey times right down. I would say that the case still remains today, it is quicker to go to Sunderland by Metro than it is bus.
>>the newcastle/sunderland stretch was much better served by the old train service which now doesnt stop at intermediate stops
>>total and utter waste of public money
The old train service was probably quite naff, hence there was a need to replace it with the Metro, which, unlike the train, linked the cities together properly. Newcastle central station is a good half mile from the CBD, but the Metro goes straight to the heart of the city. Also, with the old trains, service frequency was probably not as good as the Metro, with 200 trains leaving Wearside every day. As to whether its a waste of public money is debatable as you're the only person I have heard say so.
IMO, Metro would make a good alternative to commuting by car. You know how the saying goes, 'you can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time'
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Update....27th Jan 05.
Got on the rear carriage of the train today. Some hoodie type youth had his Mobile Phone MP3 player on...without earphones! Slouched with legs so wide apart I thought he had dislocated his hips. Was tempted to ask if he needed an ambulance. After two stops of listening to his (Music?) was tempted to put him into one. Fortunately, he got off at Stratford and I slipped into a deep sleep dreaming of my Subie Forester sitting on my drive, with it's climate controlled, leather filled clean interior.
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I used to drive to the train station and then get the train into Uni. But I got fed up of the school kids shouting in my ear, the delays on the West Coast mainline, Chavs arguing with the guard over a ticket making it late arriving, dirty seats and cold trains with no heating. That now I just drive into Wolverhampton now and have a 10 minute walk into Uni from the car park.
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Only recently we considered taking the journey to Birmingham by train, we were in the process of selling our car and buying a new one. The car journey would cost us £10 in petrol and take us 2 hours max. On the other hand the train journey was to cost us £90 and take 4 hours, having to change trains 3 times with no guarantee the connecting train would still be there. Needless to say we made sure our car was ready by that date.
Tell me about it! We live c. 1.5 hours drive from Reading, direct train available, and my son has a Uni interview there soon. Because he's got to travel during peak time, they want £70 for a day return.
I'd like to encourage his independence, but not at that price!
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Last winter, I made a 7:00 am journey on a commuter train that was warm, clean, uncrowded, on time and dirt cheap(the booking office clerk had volunteered the information that, as a codger, the 60 mile trip would only cost me around £4.70 and no, I didn't need a card or whatever).
It was from Sarlat to Bergerac, in France. Incidentally, a lovely run up the Dordogne valley on a clear, frosty morning with the sun just coming up.
You could get addicted to that sort of thing.
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"I'm lucky, I'm old enough to have a bus pass that also covers trains and ferries over a very wide area."
I'm old enough for a bus pass, with some to spare, but have not yet applied for one. Buses are only every hour in our village (trains too, for that matter). I used the train for a quick journey into Manchester last week. It took half the time, and was probably just as cheap when you take car park charges into account. Watched some very interesting people too.
I used to commute to and from Stockport at one time, but when the schools came out it tried my patience. The worst was when girls from the private schools in Alderley Edge put their feet on the seats. One short plump girl had to stretch quite hard to put her feet next to me (pink legs, white socks round ankles). If I had admonished her would it have been harassment?
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