themodelcommuter

People often think I an mad for the amount of leeway I build into journies where public transport is concerned but the fact is, time and time again, I discover something has gone wrong and I end up using some or all of that padding. I’d rather be sitting around early at my destination that panicing about being late on a delayed train, or indeed standing on a platform waiting for said delayed train as I am now. Thankfully I built in 20 minutes of slack into this trip and should be fine.

Why is it that almost every time I try to get train times from the National Express East Anglia website the first attempt fails and just returns me to the front page? It used to do this with One’s website too and it’s seriously annoying. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had to plug in the details twice so they’ll take.

My circumstances changed recently and I was catapulted from the world of being a commuter to the strange world of, well… not being a commuter. I still use the trains almost every day but the routine is gone. I find myself having to look up train times, having to check for platform numbers. Where before there was a certainty borne out of repetition and familiarity there is now uncertainty, and that is not all. The people I travel with are different too. Gone are the stoic, grim faced corporate travelers who, along with me, were enduring another trek too and from their place of employment. Now I travel with families, children, day trippers, all excited about their journey into London, or wherever they are going. All loud. All completely unaware of any form of train etiquette. If you thought commuting was bad then try not commuting for a while. It’s worse. Hopefully soon I’ll either not have to travel to London as much or will be back to commuting regularly again. Until then I shall just retire into my iPod and shut the world out until I reach my destination.

The funny white circle painted on the road just before the entrance of Colchester stations main carpark is a mini roundabout. Don’t be fooled by its deminutive size, the rules of roundabouts still apply which means charging over it at insane speeds while cutting up the bus (a manouver I see almost daily) is breaking the rules of the road and could be considered driving without due care and attention. I think the local police could have a whale of a time if they just stood someone by that roundabout from 6:30 to 7:30. Not only could they fine about 60 people, they could also make them miss their train.

I have a season direct ticket. It is similar to a normal season ticket but allows me to travel [when I bought it] anywhere on the One network during weekends and bank holidays for free. Fantastic deal, assuming they ever actually run trains during weekends and bank holidays and since they don’t check tickets on replacement bus services some might argue it’s a waste of money.

Anyway, as you may or may not know, One is now National Express East Anglia and there is also a National Express East Coast (formerly GNER). The season direct website states [or stated, it may have changed] that I could travel ‘anywhere on the National Express network’. Now I jumped on this as I regularly head up to Leeds and, unless you book 5 years on advance traveling when there is a full moon and mercury is in conjunction with venus, it’s ‘kin expensive. Of course, I wasn’t going to risk being told it didn’t work like that on a train and would I like to hand over one hundred and something large pounds for my full fare return ticket. No, I emailed customer services on the 16th of May. I got a response telling me that they aim to answer all emails within 6 working days and if my question was urgent to call their customer services number. So, here we are over 2 weeks later and I’ve heard nothing. Typical really. I’ve had my question answered, however, as the season ticket on the new printing stock says ‘valid only on National Express East Anglia’. No free trips to Leeds for me then.

Liverpool Street is in chaos. Overhead power line problems means they’re cancelling trains willy nilly. The 17:50 was axed before I even left the office, the 18:00, however, was an unknown quantity. With this in mind the instant an intercity hoves into view we’re getting on it. You got it into the station, you can get it out again. I don’t care that the platform isn’t indicated or that you’ve turned the lights off. I, along with several hundred people, are quite happy to sit in the dark and laugh as those who waited for the platform to be advertised now have to sit on the roof.

This annoys the hell out of me. If it was anyone else they’d get done. I wonder if National Express would accept ‘I no longer have the cash my aide gave me‘ as a valid form of payment or if it’s just Heathrow Express. When I’m in power I’m rescinding his right to use public transport.

OK, so I don’t drive so I may have misunderstood the highway code, however, I’m pretty sure that even Royal Mail vans need to stop when they’ve mounted a curb and struck a pedestrian with thier wing mirror. So I wasn’t rolling around the floor in pain but having a quick look in the mirror and then driving off without so much as a “sorry” is just plain wrong. He’s very lucky I didn’t get his registration number.

The little old lady on the platform must think I was being increadibly rude this morning as she tried to enquire several times if this was the train to London (OK, she’s old but “the next train to arrive at platform 3 is the 8:15 intercity service to London Liverpool Street calling at Stratford and London Liverpool Street only” kind of gives it away). Unfortunatly for her I had my überheadphones (you know, the type you have to screw into your brain via the ears) on which means I can’t hear anything (yes, I know, but it’s the same anouncement every day started as the train rounds the corner on approach to the station so it’s safe to assume it was played even if I didn’t hear it). Anyway, the great thing about these earphones is I can crank the volume to 11 with no sound leaking out to annoy my fellow commuters. Couple this with the fact my hair hides the fact I am wearing them and you get one poor old lady who things she’s being pointedly ignored. I did finally work out I was being addressed, removed the earphones, answered her question and appologise for being rude. Still, better to appear rude once in a while than sodcast my music to everyone on the carriage.