I love trains

[nuttycyclist]

I love standing on the platform waiting for the delayed train to arrive.

I love standing for an hour to get to London with all my fellow passengers crushing my shoulders.

I love the disgust they treat me with as I have a "bicycle" with me.  I love the fact that the carriage I was in today had NO luggage space under the seats where I usually put the Brompton out of the way.

I love paying over £22 for the privilege of this, knowing that for £22 I can use the motorbike for this return journey.  Twice.  And a bit more.

I love having all the ill people sniffing and spluttering over me.

I love the fact that now I'm here the person I'm to meet is running over an hour late due to train problems on a different line.

I am looking forward to my homeward journey.

It is a shame that I usually only do this once every couple of months.  Think how happy I would be if I did this every day.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Thank goodness the trains were privatised, or it would have been worse. tongue lodged in cheek

[Ian H]

I have a memory of standing on a platform, aged about five, and being frightened silly when I was suddenly engulfed in a roar of steam.

[Jaded]

Oh really...?

Commuting cost less under British Rail - Times Online

[clarion]

Shock Horror - Who knew?

I'm currently commuting by train.  It's not fun.  But I do get on early enough on the way that I get a seat, I do feel for all the people who get the train from Streatham, who always have to stand.

Now I know I'll be using the train for a while, I thought I'd buy a week's travelcard to save money.

Daily return to London Bridge = 5*£7.50 = £37.50
Weekly travelcard Zones 1-5 = £41.40

Eh?  So, even if I commute all week by train, unless I take a train at the weekend as well, I'm better off buying a ticket every day.  Well done, Southern!

[Jaded]

Poor Nutty.


Here, have an apple.




 

[la folie]

Do you have one of those waterproof jackets with a pen and a book?

[Regulator]

Well, at least if Nutty is commuting then he's not fettling.  That should save the NHS a few bob.... 

[Valiant]

Daily return to London Bridge = 5*£7.50 = £37.50
Weekly travelcard Zones 1-5 = £41.40

Do both include travel cards though?

[Jacomus]

I have to say, taking away from the rantyness of this thread a touch, that I am loving catching the train at the moment and have been for the past 3 months.

It has cost me the best part of £500 and it has been worth every penny.

I got to the stage where I was such a nervous wreck from cycling to work and back, that I wasn't functioning properly and cycling was having a serious negative influence on my quality of life.

I would wake up dreading the journey.

During the journey I would experience multiple emotions from: "Ooh, this is actually quite nice" to gibbering terror and be forced to stop for 10mins and calm down or ride on the pavement at 5mph until I made it into the thick traffic of the city.

It was putting me off my work, and leaving work too.

I usually leave my day behind in the shower when I get in, but that ceased to work.

I stopped liking cycling.

I slept loads as I was always drained from being hopped up on adrenalin for 3hrs a day.


Now I'm commuting by train, I'm relaxed and happy to wake up. I can go to bed later and thus see more of Emily. It is a hole bored directly into my bank account, but I don't care.

I manage to do about 1 commute a week by bike.

I would be sunk without trains.

[Rob S]

Now I know I'll be using the train for a while, I thought I'd buy a week's travelcard to save money.

Daily return to London Bridge = 5*£7.50 = £37.50
Weekly travelcard Zones 1-5 = £41.40

Eh?  So, even if I commute all week by train, unless I take a train at the weekend as well, I'm better off buying a ticket every day.  Well done, Southern!

I very much doubt you are comparing like with like there..

[Jaded]

Come on Rob, never let true like-for-like get in the way of a good rant!

[rogerzilla]

I haven't been on a late train for years.  When I was a student they were terrible, which is why I didn't go home much at weekends.

[mattc]

I have a memory of standing on a platform, aged about five, and being frightened silly when I was suddenly engulfed in a roar of steam.

Fortunately we now have the web for travelers needing to let off steam.

[teethgrinder]

My advice to you Nutty.
Eat lots of garlic.
They'll give you some space on the train
 

[teethgrinder]

I have to say, taking away from the rantyness of this thread a touch, that I am loving catching the train at the moment and have been for the past 3 months.

It has cost me the best part of £500 and it has been worth every penny.

I got to the stage where I was such a nervous wreck from cycling to work and back, that I wasn't functioning properly and cycling was having a serious negative influence on my quality of life.

I would wake up dreading the journey.

During the journey I would experience multiple emotions from: "Ooh, this is actually quite nice" to gibbering terror and be forced to stop for 10mins and calm down or ride on the pavement at 5mph until I made it into the thick traffic of the city.

It was putting me off my work, and leaving work too.

I usually leave my day behind in the shower when I get in, but that ceased to work.

I stopped liking cycling.

I slept loads as I was always drained from being hopped up on adrenalin for 3hrs a day.


Now I'm commuting by train, I'm relaxed and happy to wake up. I can go to bed later and thus see more of Emily. It is a hole bored directly into my bank account, but I don't care.

I manage to do about 1 commute a week by bike.

I would be sunk without trains.

So is it that your life is made worse because of motorcars preventing you enjoying something you would normally enjoy and stopping you from doing it?
Or you just that prefer to use the train instead of cycling?

[spindrift]

Love trains, me. I remember 3 and a half years ago, after the tube bombings, and I admit I was nervous the first time I went back on the tube, but this geezer stood up and offered me his seat! It was so touching.

Specially cos I've never driven a train before.

[Wowbagger]

When I was vice-chairman of governors at the kids' primary school, the chairman was a train driver on the St. Pancras - Edinburgh route. A trip up alongside him was in the offing, but for one reason or another it never happened. He's long since retired so there's no chance now.

[David Martin]

Doing a bit of local research, I discovered that not only was the local rail line the first in the North of Scotland (predating the infamous Rocket by many years, and only a few years after the Stockton and Darlington opened) but it was the only railway that I know of to have had sail powered carriages. (It was also the first general purpose railway rather than a coal line).

..d

[nuttycyclist]

The journey home was just as bad.  I had to stand all the way again.

The only consolation was that I found the first class section, but I didn't go in - it was standing room only in there too

[citoyen]

Commuting by train is a painful business but if you will live a long way from your workplace, it's your only option. I used to live in London and had a relatively short commute, now I live in the provinces and have a relatively long commute. There are good and bad points to either option.

Alternatively, I could get a much worse paid job close to home. Believe me, I've seriously considered it many times but on balance I'm happy with the choices I've made. And because they are choices I've made, I won't complain about them.

d.

[Adrian]

I have to say, taking away from the rantyness of this thread a touch, that I am loving catching the train at the moment and have been for the past 3 months.

It has cost me the best part of £500 and it has been worth every penny.

I got to the stage where I was such a nervous wreck from cycling to work and back, that I wasn't functioning properly and cycling was having a serious negative influence on my quality of life.

I would wake up dreading the journey.

During the journey I would experience multiple emotions from: "Ooh, this is actually quite nice" to gibbering terror and be forced to stop for 10mins and calm down or ride on the pavement at 5mph until I made it into the thick traffic of the city.

It was putting me off my work, and leaving work too.

I usually leave my day behind in the shower when I get in, but that ceased to work.

I stopped liking cycling.

I slept loads as I was always drained from being hopped up on adrenalin for 3hrs a day.


Now I'm commuting by train, I'm relaxed and happy to wake up. I can go to bed later and thus see more of Emily. It is a hole bored directly into my bank account, but I don't care.

I manage to do about 1 commute a week by bike.

I would be sunk without trains.

That is so strange, not that I mean to decry your experience. For the last week and a bit I have gone to work by train, for what we can label "logistical reasons". Every day has involved crowded hell holes that one would be (quite rightly) prohibited from conveying animals in, journeys that have taken barely 10 minutes fewer than they would have by bike, delayed and cancelled trains, people treading on my feet etc. etc. etc.

Today I got on my bike again, to enjoy the first class travel of my own carriage. Even the experience of a motorist opening his door beside me at some lights in Brixton, in order to cough up something substantial enough to live independently of his body and gob it by my foot, did not dampen my enthusiasm

[Adrian]

Now I know I'll be using the train for a while, I thought I'd buy a week's travelcard to save money.

Daily return to London Bridge = 5*£7.50 = £37.50
Weekly travelcard Zones 1-5 = £41.40

Eh?  So, even if I commute all week by train, unless I take a train at the weekend as well, I'm better off buying a ticket every day.  Well done, Southern!

I very much doubt you are comparing like with like there..

Clarion

As Valiant and Rob have said, your comparison is wrong. You should be able to get a 7 day season ticket Carshalton to London Bridge, without the zone 1-5 bit, for less. £30.50 in fact.

[Martin]

I could get a much worse paid job close to home. Believe me, I've seriously considered it many times but on balance I'm happy with the choices I've made. And because they are choices I've made, I won't complain about them.

what Dave said; I could cycle to Tunbridge Wells or Crawley (and probably been KSI by now) for a crap job with crap pay and probably uninspiring colleagues or spend even more money and time driving down to Brighton. I like working in London; would almost never go there otherwise (but I like coming home again even more  )

I wish they could design proper train toilets though  

[nuttycyclist]

Aye up!!!


I just remembered that I did the same journey on the 19th Nov.  For that journey I paid £22.10

Today I was charged... £22.10


What happened to that VAT reduction?   Have I been ripped off?