The state of the trains in the UK is heading back to the worst days of British Rail. Replacement buses fill weekends as lines are closed – and anyone who has ever used one will know how inconvenient and incompetent they are – commuter carriages are packed to overflow because operators will not invest, fares consistently rise above inflation, and cancellations are all too common.
A season ticket entitles you little, certainly not a seat. Many commuters who board a train at peak time when it is a few stops into its journey are used to standing, often for as long as an hour. For this they pay as much as £4000 a year.
Spare a thought for the 27-year-old who makes the daily slog from Colchester to London and is usually left with no choice but to stand and was fined for doing so.
“She is regularly forced to sit on the floor or stand outside a toilet as the train is so crowded. Miss Myhill was heading home on the 6.30pm service from London Liverpool Street to Norwich, run by National Express East Anglia. She said she could find nowhere to sit and even the spaces between the carriages were full. She moved to the end of the first-class carriage and, rather than sit in one of the empty seats, stood in a luggage area with a young couple. She was seen by a guard who accepted her reason and took no action. However, 10 minutes later two ticket inspectors ordered her to move and, when she said she could not, issued the fine. The officials refused to listen to arguments from passengers in first class, who said she had no choice as the train was full.”
Eventually the police were called by the National Express wombles and Miss Myhill was fined £69.
