Friday, January 16, 2009

Premature seat selection

A nice dose of chaos today to remind me why I drive to work these days. Already distraught at the thought of the last off-peak train of the week, my mood was not lifted by the prospect of severe delays heading into Didcot (is there a worse place to get delayed?) caused by some kind of signalling malady. So a mad dash to the Swansea train, with a change at Swindon giving the options of picking up another service back home, or calling the wife for a more civilised journey down the M4.

As I jogged past First Class (I'm carrying quite a bit of "Christmas" weight at the moment so to say I was running would be rather dishonest) I considered for a fleeting moment diving into a large leather seat and paying the excess fare, then trying to claim it back from a hopefully understanding boss later. But the moment was fleeting, and so I settled into Coach A along with the other 400 people trying to do the same thing. Imagine, then, my horror when moments into the journey the well-spoken train manager announced that "in the interests of safety, which is his top priority" he was declassifying First Class and we were free to relax in the thickly-padded recliners, draw the curtains and snooze safe in the knowledge that in a mere 3 hours we might make it to Didcot.

Sadly, the small matter of coaches B, C, D, and E stood between me and travel nirvana, as did about a thousand disgruntled commuters so I figured that any attempts to drag myself to the buffet and beyond would be fruitless.

On the plus side, good on the train manager for not only offering up First Class for the proletariat to sample, but also for doing his damndest to make sure that 97-year-old Maureen from Hereford knew exactly where and when to change to get safely home, albeit slightly later than she had planned.

Still, not an experience that would tempt me back into the swing of public transport. Monday brings with it the pleasure once again of Radio 4 and a smooth waft down the M4 in man's greatest triumph, the motor car.

1 comment:

UKTrainMan said...

Maybe you would consider a little something here. A mate of mine often travel between London King's Cross and Peterborough on a HST (National Express East Coast) and if it's a busy service I suggest standing up (it's only about a 50 minute journey) in the buffet car (which is standard class at the counter end) as you have a nice little window to yourself along with a neat little table too but of course should the need rise you could sit down on the floor or slouch against the wall or something. Should the train manager make the same announcement again you might just about be the first standard class passenger to make it into First Class and who knows maybe you would end up claiming the only remaining First Class seat too! Then again you never know maybe the train manager (who's office is, I believe, in the same carriage) might take pity on you and invite you into First Class or you could be a tad cheeky and ask him to see what he says ... after all you've surely got nothing to loose (it has happened to me before when I asked to sit in 1st Class with a STD Class ticket)!!