themodelcommuter

Its Monday. We can tell this because I am 2 hours late for work (well, 2 hours later than I would normally get in, many people wouldn’t consider just gone 9 as late) and the trains are slightly up the spout. As per usual One, being One told us this. They also told us that the first train to depart for London would be the 08:18 not the [delayed] 08:15 service. Of course, the 08:18 is a mainline train which stops on the way in to London whereas the 08:15 is an Intercity service with all the joys it brings. So we 08:15 travellers (or interlopers in my case) held firm.

Seeing that no one was moving a new announcement was made. The 08:15 has been delayed by technical problems and the first train into London would still be the 08:18. This dislodged a couple of people, but the vast majority still held. I, like some others, was beginning to waver. My headphones were now off so I could listen to the full extent of the problems when the next announcement was made rather than catching snippets of it.

I didn’t have to wait for long, switching to idiot mode the new announcement was made telling us the the 08:18 on platform 3 [look, its over there, can you see it?] would be the first train into London. Furthermore we were told that the 08:15 which was due to arrive at platform 4 [you know, the one you're on] at some time had been delayed due to technical problems on the train and that more information would be relayed later, that it was likely to be subject to more delayed when it finally left Colchester and that the best bet really would be the 08:18.

Actually, the exact words used regarding the 08:15 were ‘a further announcement will be made later‘ which, in London at least, means ‘we don’t have a blind clue what’s going on, but when we do we’ll let you know‘. Couple this with ‘technical fault’ and we get the translation: the train has broken down somewhere. We’re trying to fix it and we’re working on the assumption that we can get it going again long enough to, at the very least, limp into London but we reserve the right to throw our metaphorical hands in the air, declare it utterly fubar’d and cancel the service at pretty much any time and any station of our choosing, or in very simple terms: get the 08:18.

People are, as we have ascertained on many, many occasions, complete idiots and while a few of us bolted for the 08:18 while there was still time the vast majority of people stood firm for the 08:15. Ordinarily I would understand why, after all, its 10-15 minutes faster on the intercity… assuming its not delayed, that it’s not following a slow[ish] train into London and that the crossbeam is not askew on the treadle. It was with a certain amount of amusement, therefore, that I passed the (still waiting) future passengers of the 08:15 while sat on my (really quite empty) 08:18 service calling at a whole host of places, including London Liverpool street, scheduled time of arrival… before the 08:15.

~ by The Model Commuter on July 23, 2007.