Blogs
The Break of Dawn
A blog from the Waterfront's Dawn Lewis.
Why people drive, everywhere!
- 01 Mar 2007 09:00
Having just returned from a visit home in quaint West Sussex I would just like to express my dislike of public transport. Yes granted, you probably already have your own tainted opinion about this subject, well let me add mine.
I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend of home cooked food and free use of the washing machine, my journey however, was not a highlight. I arrived home on Friday night to discover the train crash that had happened on the west coastline track, now in fairness trains are a very safe way to travel - apparently, and it was nothing short of a miracle that more people weren't hurt. But if you've been following the events of that particular crash you'll know that someone had forgotten to put four fairly vital bolts back into the track and that I believe was the main cause of said accident.
Anyway, back to my travel experiences. I spent the weekend driving myself around in the comfort of my own space, which I loved - you really miss your car when you don't have it! Then came my return journey, things were going well until I reached Reading. My train was cancelled. And here begins my tale. Having sat at Reading station in the freezing cold for 30mins, a train arrived but it was so full I literally had to force my way on and stand, not particularly gracefully, in the isle.
I endured this until Bristol, where I managed to bag a seat. By this point I was glad to sit down and was looking forward to being home and watching LOST. All was well, that is until we reached Newport, and here comes problem number two. There was a signalling fault between there and Cardiff which resulted in a 45min wait. I was not impressed, plus I was getting hungry, which only made me more agitated. This was the problem which caused all of those football supporters to miss the Carling Cup Final, yet another cock up.
I did finally get through to Swansea and was only 70mins late, my journey had been nearly five and a half hours long, I was tried, hungry and stressed - but hey that's public transport for you. I'm not saying that we shouldn't use public transport; I just think that for the outrageous fares that we all put up with paying, that we should get a decent service. Trains that run on time, that you can sit down on and trains that are clean. Until this happens, people aren't going to give up there cars and I am still going to rant about getting delayed. Sorry.
Dawn Lewis