£13,192 – that’s a large amount of money isn’t it?
Well, that’s roughly what I’ve spent commuting to London over the last 34 months. That’s an average of £388 a month and that excludes taxis to and from the station and other travel related expense.
What is most galling about such a significant expenditure is that I have nothing to show for it; I might as well have burnt the money.
Even more annoying is that the quality of service received for such a big payment is truly shocking. My train trip takes just under an hour and generally I have to catch a train of ancient vintage with tiny seats and no air conditioning, whilst the nice new Virgin trains whoosh by at high speed not stopping in Milton Keynes because it isn’t profitable enough. Isn’t it supposed to be public transport?
I caught better trains in India for fricks sake.
Then there is the underground… Always packed and I mean absolutely wedged against the next sweating and sadly stinking person. The tube trains are very often late, slow or just plain non-existent.
Since I have been travelling to London the underground have been running the same ‘hot weather advice’ posters stating that they are investigating ways of making the underground cooler but in the mean time I should carry a bottle of water to stop me feinting. So not only do I have to spend £388 a month on the ticket I then need to spend even more on water to stop me dieing.
If we were shipping animals around in these conditions I bet there would be outcry and ourage but not for us poor humans that have to pay for it…