Train Ticket Ripoff - The Drivers point of view...
So I get up at 3am to drive in a -3 degree winter snowstorm down a major South East motorway which the lazy highways agency hasn't bothered to grit, dispite 3 days warning of snow.

Did I mention it was 3am?

So I get to work, on time, park in a poorly secured staff car park, walk half a mile to my workplace to present myself for work, signing a legal document that absolves the company of any liabiliy should I make a mistake and find out where my train is.

Sadly, the train is still not ready for service, as the night before, several people decided to vomit all over the carriages because they'd had too much to drink. Also, the cleaning staff were still trying to unblock the toilets, remove syringes and remove 3 tons of old newspapers, mc-wrappers and empty cans of stella from every concievable location on board the train.

Once my train is ready for service, I sit in a tiny cab, using techology that is 20 years old (and up until 2 years ago, the train was 40 years old) and attempt to keep to a timetable drawn up by people who have no clue what real life actual is (i.e. civil servants).

And all this to ensure that 1,500 people get to work on time. That's 1.5k people on one train, all the sole responsibility of me, the driver (so stick that where the sun don't shine, Mr 474 pilot).

But wait... I have deranged people trying to kill themselves (messy) and pikey scum trying to kill everyone else by stealing copper cables that run signals and other things that tend to stop death and mayhem. I have drunken idiots (at 10am) pulling emergency cords at 100mph because they wanted to get off three stations ago. I have managers dreaming up ever more efficient ways of ensuring we '110% perform' and 'deliver customer synergy while enforcing customer satisfaction to a quantifiable level'.

And the next time I get spat upon by some commuter because the train is 10 minutes late, due to some children have decided to throw a paving slab off a bridge at an oncoming train for a *laugh*...

I'd like to apologise for the length, but I can't be bothered. If you've voted New Labour since 1997, ask why the railways haven't been re-nationalised (like they promised). The sole reason train fares are aparently so high is that the majority of people voted in idiots who while proclaiming to be 'with the people' are actually shareholders in the private companies who now monopolise the railway franchises.

(So don't have a go at the staff on the ground... we're only trying to do our jobs...)

END OF RANT
( HSDriver was probably still at work on, Sun 18 Feb 2007, 1:38, Reply)